Southeast Missouri State baseball team a win away from conference title

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser knew what awaited his team when it faced Murray State on Saturday at Capaha Field after the Redhawks had topped the Thoroughbreds by one run in extra innings the night before.

He also knew that his players hadn't played their best baseball and expected more out of them.

The Redhawks were able to hold off the Thoroughbreds in Game 2 of the series with an 8-6 victory to improve to 31-15 overall and 21-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"I knew that we would do something different than we did yesterday, and I thought yesterday we were not very good; we were not very locked in and the focus wasn't there," Bieser said. "But when these guys get a challenge they tend to rise to the challenge, and they knew that we had our hands full today and they had to come out from the start of the game and really be locked in, and that's what was nice to see."

The first-place Redhawks can assure themselves of at least a tie for their first OVC title since 2002 with a win in today's 1 p.m. series finale.

Southeast jumped on Murray State starting pitcher Brock Downey early, plating a run in each of the first two innings.

Murray State evened the score in the third when center fielder Taylor Mathews singled and scored on an Anthony Bayus triple. Bayus scored when right fielder Kollin Dowdy doubled.

The Redhawks took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning when first baseman Matt Tellor hit his 13th home run of the season -- a two-out, two-run shot to left-center field -- to make it 4-2.

"He's a crafty lefty," Tellor said about Downey. "He has three pitches and he mixes them well, and he can spot up. And he just tries to throw your timing off at the plate, but we just stuck with our approach and just tried to stay up the middle, middle-away and we were successful today with that."

Southeast Missouri State fans cheer as first baseman Matt Tellor hits his second home run in the eighth inning of the Redhawks' 8-6 win over the Thoroughbreds Saturday, May 3, at Capaha Field. Tellor hit two-home runs and had four RBIs during the game. (Adam Vogler)

Catcher Cole Ferguson put the Redhawks up 7-3 in the sixth with a two-out, two-run homer.

Southeast starter Travis Hayes gave up a home run to Bayus in the seventh, but Tellor, who went 3 for 4 with two runs and four RBIs, hit his second home run of the game in the eighth for a four-run cushion.

The Thoroughbreds attempted a comeback in the ninth.

Southeast reliever Christian Hull struck out the first batter he faced before giving up a single and walking a batter. He struck out a second batter before shortstop Matt McGowan doubled to make it 8-6.

Brady Wright relieved Hull and walked the first batter he faced, but he ended the game with a strikeout to pick up his third save.

Hayes, the reigning OVC pitcher of the week after shutting out Jacksonville State last Saturday, improved to 7-1 with the win. He allowed four runs (three earned) on 11 hits over eight innings, striking out four and hitting two batters.

"They just square balls up. Granted, the 2-hole drove gaps and hit home runs today, but that's really not their M.O.," Hayes said. "For the most part they're going to put the bat on the ball and they're going to single you to death and they're going to string hits together and bunt, and I mean, a team like that is hard to pitch against because they don't strikeout. It's hard to get balls by them.

Southeast Missouri State first baseman Matt Tellor hits a solo home run in the eighth inning of the Redhawks' 8-6 win over the Thoroughbreds Saturday, May 3, at Capaha Field. Tellor hit two-home runs and had four RBIs during the game. (Adam Vogler)

"I had a really, really good curveball today and still only struck out a few people because even on 0-2 curveballs in the dirt, they either still managed to somehow foul off or ground out to the shortstop. It's still outs, but they're still making contact on good pitches so a team like that you just try to make as weak a contact as possible."

Ryan Lenaburg will start on the mound for Southeast in the series finale at 1 p.m. today.

"He's very capable of shutting opposing teams down, but I do believe this is a tough matchup for him," Bieser said. "And basically what he needs to do is pick Travis Hayes' brain on how to slow things down and just needs to talk to Travis about how he approached each hitter and kind of have that same mindset of going after these guys and not getting too wrapped up."

Southeast will recognize seniors Cole Bieser, Derek Gibson, Matt Tellor, Skylar Cobb and John Logan Zink before today's game.