Southeast Missouri State baseball team begins OVC play today at EKU

A knowing look crosses the fact of fourth-year Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser as he sits in his office at Houck Field House on Monday afternoon.

He has just finished explaining that he feels his team's win-loss record, which was 6-5 at the time and now 6-7 after a pair of road losses to nationally-ranked Ole Miss, makes him feel like the team has underachieved so far.

The team's struggled to get things going as well as he'd like offensively, particularly from returning players, but the dominating starting pitching has been a pleasant surprise.

He's got confidence the hitters can turn it around because he saw a similar start to last season.

So when did he start to see things pick up and when does he expect it to this year?

"I think it's right about this time of the year," Bieser said. "It's right when we get into conference play, and that's what we see coming up. We're getting a chance to get into conference play and we start defining our everyday lineup a little more tightly where guys know that they're in that lineup and they know what slot in the lineup they're going to pretty much be in predominantly, and I think that allows guys to settle in."

The two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champion Redhawks begin their title defense today. They face Eastern Kentucky (7-5) at 3 p.m. today to start a three-game series in Richmond, Kentucky. Game 2 is set for 1 p.m. Saturday and the finale at noon Sunday.

Southeast was 4-6 when it faced EKU a year ago to open its OVC slate. The Redhawks won the series and went on to post a conference record of 22-8.

In 2014 Southeast was 6-6 to open conference play. The Redhawks swept Belmont and then EKU en route to its 23-7 conference finish.

"It just seems like our conference, everybody got a little bit better than they were last year, so I think it can be very, very challenging for us this year," Bieser said. "A lot of times the first weekend determines that, on how you get off in that first week and build that confidence or if you're going to be struggling throughout the entire year to get things going. We know we've got a tough test this weekend."

Some of the offensive struggles the Redhawks have faced aren't surprising. With the lineups being sorted out in time for conference play, players are feeling the pressure while they try to prove they deserve a spot in the weekend lineup.

"I think the biggest thing is just guys are trying to do too much," Bieser said. "They're trying to get a season's worth of hits in one weekend and just not letting things come to them. They're pressing, which makes them tense in the box and then all of a sudden they get a pitch that they would normally jump on and hit really well and they're not able to pull the trigger. Â… We've checked video and watched video and our guys do know the strike zone, but there's some balls that they can handle that they just haven't pulled the trigger on and got a swing off. Sometimes they're in between the pitches and they get a swing off but their timing's not right there because they're second-guessing themselves."

Bieser said the lineups used against No. 13 Ole Miss in the Redhawks' midweek series leading up to OVC play would be closer to what the weekend lineups will look like.

Daniel Costello batted leadoff and played right field in both games while second baseman Trevor Ezell was No. 2 and centerfielder Dan Holst was in the three-hole.

Shortstop Branden Boggetto hit fourth followed by left fielder Garrett Gandolfo and first baseman Ryan Rippee. Scott Mitchell was the designated hitter and batted seventh in Game 1, followed by third baseman Hunter Leeper and catcher Brian Lees.

Lees caught and hit seventh in Game 2 with DH Kylar Robertson and third baseman Andy Lack rounded out the lineup.

Southeast's hitting .268 as a team through 13 games. Holst's sitting at .413 with Costello (.381), Boggetto (.340) and Lees (.300) all above the .300 mark.

Rippee and Ezell, both preseason Louisville Slugger All-Americans, are hitting .208 and .204, respectively.

Four of the Redhawks' seven losses have been by one run and they're coming off a two-run loss to Ole Miss. In three of those one-run losses Southeast has been held to one or no runs, but spectacular starting pitching has kept them close.

Bieser's adjusted his weekend starting rotation each of the past two seasons as the team entered conference play. Two years ago he moved Travis Hayes into a starting role and he went on to claim OVC Co-Pitcher of the Year honors. Last season Joey Lucchesi moved out of the bullpen for conference and won OVC Pitcher of the Year.

Clay Chandler, Saturday's starterWAYNE MCPHERSON ~ Special to Southeast Missourian

There will be no adjustment this season. Lucchesi, a lefty, will be the Redhawks' Friday night starter with junior transfers Clay Chandler (RHP) and Robert Beltran (LHP) getting the nod on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Each has been phenomenal in their first three starts of the season. Lucchesi's 2-1 with a 0.90 ERA. He allowed two earned runs in the season opener before pitching seven scoreless in each of his last two outings.

He was perfect in his seven against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, striking out 11, and struck out nine in his last start.

Chandler's 1-0 with a 0.41 ERA. He allowed one earned run on two hits with 10 strikeouts and a couple of walks in his Redhawks' debut on opening weekend. He followed that up with a five-hit, one-walk performance at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, allowing one unearned run. He's coming off a two-hit 14 strikeout performance in which he didn't allow a run or a walk in eight innings of a no decision against Central Arkansas.

Robert Beltran,Sunday's starterWAYNE MCPHERSON ~ Submitted photos

Beltran's posted a 2-1 record with an ERA of 3.63. He posted his best performance of the season last Sunday, allowing one earned run on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in a season-long seven innings against UCA.

"I think it's a good mixture to go from lefty to righty to lefty and really three totally different types of guys," Bieser said, "where Joey can be a power pitcher with plus off-speed stuff, and then you've got Chandler who's more finesse and really can move and mess with guys, and then you've got Beltran who comes back and does kind of what Chandler does from a left-handed option, so I think they work really well together on the weekend.

"They're about to get their first test against a very explosive Eastern Kentucky lineup and we'll see where we're at right there because they have two of the most dangerous hitters in the league on their roster and an older roster that's been pretty good offensively for awhile."

EKU is off to its best start since 2010 and is sixth nationally in runs (106), seventh in triples (7) and 10th in hits (141).

Senior third baseman Mandy Alvarez is hitting .439 and his 25 hits is the most in the country. Senior left fielder Kyle Nowlin, the OVC's preseason Player of the Year, has hit seven homers, which is second nationally.

The Colonels are batting .322 as a team and have hit 16 home runs.

Southeast's pitching staff is tops in the league with a 2.94 ERA. Morehead State's 3.62 ERA is second with EKU's 4.24 in third.

Bieser's unsure of exactly what he's got with his bullpen, as those pitchers haven't gotten as much work as usual with how well the starters have been, but is excited about the potential.

"I think we've got a bullpen that complements each other from the left hand side to the right hand side," Bieser said. "We've got more balance this year to play more matchup and I think where these guys can really excel is an inning at a time. I don't know that we want to send anybody out there for multiple, multiple innings."

Much like the potential of the bullpen has been left unseen, Bieser's optimistic he still hasn't seen everything his team has to offer.

"I think that's what's very encouraging is the fact that when we can put it all together and play really well on the offensive side and continue to pitch like we've been pitching and play the solid defense like I know we're capable of playing," Bieser said, "then I think some good things can really happen for this club."