Southeast Missouri State baseball team avoids OVC sweep

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser had some concern when Redhawks starting pitcher Travis Hayes "tweaked his side" during the first inning of the series finale against Morehead State on Sunday at Capaha Field.

Hayes continuously reassured his coach that he was OK, and his impressive one-run, three-hit performance in seven innings on the mound in Southeast's 7-1 victory proved it.

The Eagles (11-12, 4-5 OVC) entered the game with one of the top offenses in the Ohio Valley Conference, and had shown it with a total of 15 runs in their wins against the Redhawks on Friday and Saturday.

"Coach [Lance] Rhodes and I knew that in order for us to be successful today that we had to throw a lot of strikes, and that's what we did for the most part," Hayes said. "The few times that I did get behind in the count, they were able to put better swings on the ball like they did all weekend. But for the most part that was the No. 1 priority, getting the first strike. The times that we got first-pitch strikes, it was a lot easier to pitch the rest of the game."

Hayes struggled to throw strikes to start the game, walking the leadoff batter in four pitches. He then gave up a single to Morehead left fielder Nick Newell, finding himself with no outs and runners on first and third.

Southeast Missouri State starter Travis Hayes pitches to a Morehead State batter during the fifth inning Sunday at Capaha Field. Hayes allowed three hits and one run over seven innings in the Redhawks’ 7-1 victory. (Fred Lynch)

He struck out Kane Sweeney before a Brandon Rawe sacrifice fly scored the Eagles' lone run of the game.

Meanwhile, Southeast (14-9, 7-2 OVC) wasted no time in tying the score in the home half of the inning.

Second baseman Jason Blum drew a leadoff walk and was balked to second. Right fielder Dalton Hewitt hit a one-out single to center field to score Blum.

The Redhawks took the lead in the fourth. First baseman Matt Tellor and catcher Scott Mitchell sent back-to-back, one-out singles to right field before third baseman Andy Lennington hit a double to left field to score Tellor. It was Lennington's first hit of the three-game series.

Shortstop Andy Lack grounded out to Morehead second baseman Tyler Bigler to score Mitchell, and Lennington scored on a Clayton Evans single to make it 4-1.

Southeast extended the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Tellor and Mitchell hit consecutive singles to lead off the inning, and Lennington bunted them to second and third.

Lack hit a grounder to shortstop and Tellor was able to beat the throw home with a head-first slide for a 5-1 lead.

Lack, who reached first on the fielder's choice, stole second and scored along with Mitchell on a throwing error by shortstop Blaine Tanner.

One of the Eagles' few instances with multiple base runners came in the top of the sixth inning. Hayes struck out Tanner in the leadoff spot before walking the next two batters. He got out of it unscathed, coaxing Sweeney to hit into his first double play of the season.

Hayes allowed two of his hits in the seventh, when Morehead catcher Chris Robinson reached on an infield single and designated hitter Bobby Burns followed with a single through the left side, but escaped damage with a couple of fly outs.

"Situations like that where there's a couple people on, I'm not doing anything special," Hayes said. "I'm just trying to throw a quality strike because I know that everybody on the infield and the outfield is going to back me up. I mean, Andy Lack today did a great job at shortstop. Turned a couple double plays.

"I know that any time that I get in a jam, I'm one pitch away from getting out of it just because I have Andy Lack and Jason Blum up the middle that are so good at turning double plays, as they have been all year. That's my No. 1 mindset when I'm in a jam like that is that if I can just make a good quality pitch and get them to roll over a jam, then those two up the middle are going to take care of it."

Hayes (3-0) had four strikeouts in his third win of the season.

Lack didn't get a hit but walked twice, had two RBIs, two stolen bases and scored a run. He made a few solid plays at shortstop to back up Hayes.

"He's playing with a lot of confidence, and if he continues to play that way that is a big boost to our team because that's the way we like to play," Bieser said. "He's out there, and he's not the fastest guy on the team, but he causes a lot of havoc when he's on the bases because he's looking for any little edge to take an extra base, and that's big when we can move up bases. His defense has been outstanding. Today he made all the plays, and there were really tough plays out there that he made look fairly routine."

Skylar Cobb and Garret Stockton combined to pitch two hitless innings to end the game.

Southeast's offense, which was held to one run and three hits Saturday, collected eight hits in the game.

"I think we're a better offensive team that what we showed this whole series, but the biggest thing that I want to make sure is that our guys aren't pressing and trying to do stuff on an individual level," Bieser said. "As long as they just continue to play the team game, and I think we've got some guys that are very willing to do that, then they'll see the results at the end of the year if they just keep playing that way. But when you start worrying about getting a hit, getting your hits and keeping your average where it's at, that's when things go bad."

Mitchell finished the game 3 for 4 and scored two runs in the Redhawks' win, which avoided their first conference series sweep and snapped a three-game losing streak.

"He's just a solid hitter," Bieser said about Mitchell. "If he starts trying to change his game and try to hit home runs or something like that, then that's when he's going to go downhill, but I don't see him doing that. He takes what the opponent gives him and he does a very good job doing that. I truly think he's just one of the better hitters in this league."

Morehead's Willie Sligh (0-2) took the loss.

Southeast, which remained in first place in the OVC, travels to Starkville, Miss., to take on No. 18 Mississippi State in a nonconference game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.