Southeast Missouri State baseball team beats defending champs to claim OVC title

COOKEVILLE, Tennessee -- All season long the Southeast Missouri State baseball players and coaches have said that the goal is to win the day and then win the series.

The Redhawks won the day and the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship on Friday with a 12-8 victory against defending champion Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee.

"Every game's important and before the series started we addressed that we want to win the series," catcher Scott Mitchell said. "You want to do that every week. You want to take two out of three, you want to go for the sweep, just do what you've got to do to beat the other team. And whether it was going to happen today, tomorrow or Sunday, we didn't discuss that.

"It was more, 'What do we have to do to win the day, win this game?' That was the mentality behind us and it's always that way. It's always just, 'What do we got to do to beat these guys?' OVC Champions is nothing to brush off, but that was not the mentality of 'We've got to win this game to be champs' it was, 'We've got to win this game so we can win the series.'"

It is only the second OVC regular-season title for Southeast, which won it and the OVC tournament in 2002.

"I'm so proud of this group of guys, and it's exciting for them because they've earned this, they've worked extremely hard," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "They've been so coachable, so teachable all season long.

"And I'm just extremely proud about the way they went about this game because, I mean, we faced adversity, and they kept battling back and that's just the sign of a good team never quits. We went toe-to-toe with a heavyweight offense, and we came out ahead."

The Redhawks never trailed in the game, but the game wasn't without dramatic moments.

They took a 1-0 lead on Mitchell's first Southeast home run in the third inning and led 3-1 after five complete innings.

Southeast extended its lead to 8-1 in the top of the sixth before the Golden Eagles answered with six runs in the bottom of the inning to pull within one run.

A double, a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases for Southeast with one out in the top of the inning before center fielder Cole Bieser and first baseman Matt Tellor drew back-to-back walks to make it 5-1.

Left fielder Derek Gibson then doubled to left center to clear the bases and give Southeast a seven-run lead that didn't last long.

Tech catcher Jordan Parris and first baseman Zach Stephens each hit a two-run home run in the Golden Eagle's half of the inning.

Ryan Lenaburg then came in to pitch and gave up back-to-back doubles to Daniel Miles and Brandon Thomasson, and a single to Dylan Bosheers. That made it 8-7 with one out and one runner on, but a fielder's choice and a foul out ended the inning.

"You know, up 8-1 you want to just pound the zone, make them come out and swing the bat," Mitchell said. "We fell behind a couple counts, got ourselves into situations that weren't ideal, but I was never discouraged to a point where I didn't think we were going to win this game.

"You know, you're always looking at the next guy to pick you up, especially if things aren't going your way and that's how it's been all year. If one guy doesn't come through we have the next guy right behind him ready to go, and a lot of the times they'll come through with that hit or that pitch or making that play. So a little nerve-wracking, but it was never anything that I was questioning."

The Redhawks added three runs in the seventh and a run in the eighth to give themselves a five-run cushion.

Tech mustered a run in the eighth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but reliever Brady Wright got Parris to fly out to center to end the threat.

Bieser wasn't comfortable with any lead until the game was over since Tech leads the nation in runs scored, but commended his pitching staff.

"I thought those guys that came in -- it was never easy," Bieser said. "They had to battle all the way through. And I thought Ryan [Lenaburg] really battled, especially in that sixth inning when they were just locked in and hitting balls hard. He could've gave up right then but he didn't, he came back and threw a couple of really good innings after that, and Brady [Wright] came on and was spectacular."

Wright picked up his fourth save of the season. He pitched 1 1/3 innings and did not allow a hit.

Reliever Christian Hull (4-2) picked up the win. He pitched one inning and allowed two earned runs on one hit with two walks and a strikeout.

Southeast will be the No. 1 seed in the OVC tournament and will open play on May 22 after a first-round bye.

"We're not done yet," Mitchell said. "We've reached a milestone but we've got plenty more to push through. I'm excited to go to war with these guys."

Southeast (32-16, 22-6 OVC) and Tech (36-14, 16-9 OVC) will play Game 2 of the series at 2 p.m. Saturday and the finale at 1 p.m. Sunday at Bush Stadium.

"We're going to enjoy tonight," Gibson said. "It's a huge night for us, but tomorrow we're going to go back and win the day. We're going to do everything we can to come out and stick to our game plan, manufacture runs and do the things it takes to win because we want to win every single game. We've done what we needed to do and took care of business, but we're still going to go out and play our game."