Southeast baseball team wins rubber match vs. Falcons

After splitting a season-opening doubleheader with Bowling Green, the Southeast Missouri State baseball team was in search of a strong pitching and mental performance in the series finale.

Luckily for the Redhawks, who committed six errors and gave up 12 runs to the Falcons a day earlier, both went in their favor.

Led by senior starting pitcher Ryan Lenaburg, who struck out eight batters and only gave up one run, Southeast defeated Bowling Green 5-1 and captured its first series victory of the season on Saturday at Capaha Field.

"I thought Ryan was superb. He really set the tone that he was going to go out and have a good outing right from the start," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "Once he got that breaking ball going and could command it for strikes, you could see that hitters were really off-balance. I thought he threw an outstanding game, and that's what we need to continue to see out of him."

Southeast (2-1) never trailed against Bowling Green (1-2) and got things going early with a three-run second inning.

Senior Andy Lennington reached first on a one-out single and advanced to second during the next at-bat, when Branden Boggetto was hit by a pitch.

Following Bowling Green starting pitcher Zac Carey's miscue, junior Hunter Leeper watched four straight balls go by to load the bases for Brendon Neel.

The senior center fielder worked a 2-1 count before lifting a high fly ball to right field. Lennington tagged from third and easily scored to make it 1-0 with two down in the inning.

Boggetto also tagged on Neel's sacrifice fly and advanced to third. Southeast veteran second baseman Jason Blum followed with a single up the middle to extend the Redhawks' lead to 2-0.

"It's the same old thing. I've got those big bats behind me and my job is to get on," Blum said. "I've got [Trevor] Ezell right behind me who is doing the exact same thing. He's one heck of a ball player and one that I'm thankful to have so we can drive in some runs."

Leeper advanced to second on Blum's base hit and was quickly driven home when freshman left fielder Trevor Ezell swung at and whistled the first pitch he saw down the right field line to make it 3-0.

"That's why they're there at the beginning of the season. I see those two guys both as great table setters," Bieser said. "We haven't seen a whole lot of it yet, but Ezell has a little pop in his bat. And we'll see that as the weather warms up. When the winds are howling strraight in, you don't get to see that as much, but we saw him hit a double into the left-center gap from the left side yesterday. And those are the types of things he's capable of, not only getting on base, which he showed he can do this series, but he's going to hit some doubles. And Blum's going to score from first quite often as long as they keep that little combination going."

Bieser said he was impressed with his team's offense up and down the lineup but credited Lenaburg's performance on the mound as the guiding force that helped Southeast succeed.

"That was huge to score that many runs so early, but I think a lot of that goes back to just the guys seeing how Ryan settled in on the mound," Bieser said. "He was working through hitters, you know, keeping the game rolling at a good pace. Our hitters got a little confidence, and once we started rolling in that inning, things kind of fell in place. They weren't thinking about too many things, we were really just taking good at-bats and were able to put up a nice number. On the flip side of that, it also gives Ryan a chance to settle in with a little comfort and a little lead.

"I thought, overall, the group did a nice job of coming back to finish out 25 innings in what seemed like 24 hours. We played three games in a very short amount of time. For them to come in and be as mentally locked in as they were was impressive."

Lenaburg had no trouble settling in after his teammates gave him a comfortable three-run lead. He gave up two hits to start the third, but utilized his fastball and curveball to strike out the next three batters he faced and end the inning.

"I think we just did a good job of making pitches look the same," Lenaburg said. "Hitters were having a tough time reading it out of my hand. The fastball allowed me to open up some of my off-speed stuff, and that curve did get a lot of guys to chase.

"But it really was the guys behind me that helped me get it done. It was good to see them back me up today."

Southeast added two more runs in the sixth, when Leeper drew a walk to lead off the inning. Neel reached on an error next, followed by Blum, who reached base for the third time with a walk to load the bases. Ezell followed with his second RBI of the game, a fielder's choice, which scored Leeper from third. Blum was called out at second base, but Neel reached third safely.

With two outs, runners at the corners and Ryan Rippee at the plate, Southeast attempted a double steal to near perfection. Ezell was caught in between first and second and was eventually tagged out to end the inning, but his play delayed a throw home, allowing Neel to score and extend the lead to 5-0.

Lenaburg's only earned run of the game came off the bat of Bowling Green's Randy Righter, who hit a solo home run to left field to cut the lead to 5-1 in the seventh.

With the offensive production showcased in the series finale, Bieser believes opposing teams will have trouble matching up with the Redhawks this season.

"I really like our lineup from top to bottom. There's not an easy out in our lineup, and that's what's so nice," Bieser said. "To be able to know that you don't have to wait until the top of your lineup comes back up to score runs is a real luxury, and I think we saw that today. The bottom of our order is just as dangerous as the top of our order. Sometimes you could just look at it and flip it upside down and it would still work. Those guys understand what their job is, and they do it very well."