Southeast Missouri State baseball team crowned OVC champion despite loss

After members of the Southeast Missouri State baseball team scattered from their postgame huddle on the field and headed to gather their gear in the dugout, coach Steve Bieser leaned over the railing and let his players know the outcome of another Ohio Valley Conference game.

When he told them that Murray State was leading second-place Morehead State by 23 runs in the seventh inning there was no cheering and, apart from a few smiles, no emotion whatsoever because even though a Morehead State loss meant the Redhawks won the conference championship outright Southeast's 11-5 loss to the Bruins in Game 2 of their series put a damper on any potential celebration.

"They want to do it themselves. They want to win this series and know that they didn't have to get any help, and I think that's just the way this group works," Bieser said. "They're really business-like. They just want to go out and play their best ball, and I think it's hard for them to get excited because they know they didn't play their best game today."

The Southeast squad boarded a bus and were on the road back to its hotel before the final out of Morehead's 27-7 loss, which made the Redhawks sole regular-season conference champions for the second year in a row.

Even if Southeast had played its best game and been able to top Belmont for the second day in a row, a dogpile on the field at Rose Park wasn't guaranteed.

"I don't know if we would've or not because our ultimate goal isn't just here -- it's down the road," senior center fielder Jason Blum said. "We want to win that conference tournament. I can't say we would or wouldn't have because in the heat of the moment who knows what would've happened."

The Redhawks jumped out to a short-lived 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Blum drew a one-out walk, advanced to third on a double by shortstop Branden Boggetto and scored on a single up the middle off the bat of left fielder Andy Lennington.

Boggetto was one of five runners stranded in scoring position in the game when a 1-6-3 double play left him on third after a half inning.

Southeast starting pitcher Alex Winkelman got off to a rough start for the second outing in a row, and Bieser is unsure if the issue is his pregame preparation or something else.

Belmont center fielder Drew Ferguson sent a one-out single through the left past a diving Boggetto before Winkelman walked first baseman Matt Beaty. Another base hit loaded the bases before the junior lefty struck out designated hitter Nick Egli for the second out.

Third baseman Tyler Walsh followed with a two-run base hit to left to put the Bruins up 2-1. Second baseman Tyler Fullerton, who was on first, tried to advance to third on the throw home but was thrown out by catcher Hunter Leeper to end the inning.

Southeast Missouri State starting pitcher Alex Winkelman delivers a pitch during Friday's game against Belmont. (Wayne McPherson)

"Really what they did good is they just took care of every mistake I made," Winkelman said. "If I made a bad pitch they were all over it and if we messed up on defense they were burning us every time. That's what good teams do, so we've just got to come out tomorrow and execute a little bit better and we'll be fine."

Leeper drew a leadoff walk in the second and designated hitter Cole Ferguson singled before first baseman Ryan Rippee drove in a run with a base hit to left to tie the game at 2.

Second baseman Andy Lack drew another walk from starter Patrick McGrath and Ferguson scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Trevor Ezell.

Blum singled to plate Rippee and make it 4-2, but another inning-ending double play stranded a runner in scoring position.

"I think we were just trying to stay disciplined and trying to not swing at pitches that they wanted us to swing at because a guy like that who spots up so well makes a living off of getting you to swing at his pitch," said Rippee, who was 3 for 4 and the only Redhawk batter with multiple hits. "I think we did a good job the first couple innings of not swinging at his pitch and swinging at ours."

Winkelman issued a pair of walks and gave up a hit to load the bases for Belmont's top hitter Ferguson with one out in the Bruins half of the second.

He got Ferguson to ground to Lack at second, but his throw to Boggetto to get catcher Alec Diamond out at second skipped into left field and three runs plated on the throwing error.

"That's a tough one to come back from, especially when we'd just got the lead, but Andy Lack makes that play 10 times out of 10 usually," Winkelman said. "That's a tough play to make and he was trying to do something to help me out because I was struggling a bunch out there so I appreciate the effort of him trying to get me out of the inning because at that point I was looking pretty poor on the mound."

Ferguson moved to second on the error and scored when Beaty singled to center in the next at-bat to extend the Bruins' lead to 6-4. The Redhawks turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the four-run inning.

Both teams were retired in order in the third as a string of four scoreless innings began for the Redhawks offense. Rippee doubled but was stranded on third in the top of the fourth and Southeast had two hits but stranded both runners in the fifth.

"When a pitcher gets a lead like he got a lead it allows them to take a deep breath, it allows them to kind of recollect everything and that's when he really settled in and threw us really tough," Bieser said. "He made some quality pitches, turned some double plays on us in situations where we were just trying to scratch back in there and he didn't let us back in because he made a really good pitch."

Belmont scored twice in the bottom of the fourth after a leadoff ground-rule double and a couple of RBI singles to left.

Southeast cut the lead to 8-5 in the top of the seventh when Ezell drew a four-pitch leadoff walk and Blum reached on a throwing error by the third baseman and Belmont elected to go to its bullpen.

Reliever Tyler Vaughn walked Boggetto to load the bases and had thrown one ball to Lennington before being pulled for closer Matthew Kinney with no outs and the bases loaded.

Lennington grounded into a 6-3 double play but Ezell scored. A diving stop by Beaty at first and a throw to Kinney covering left Blum at third to end the inning.

The Bruins plated their final three runs in the bottom of the seventh. After giving up a leadoff single to Diamond, Winkelman got a fly out and a strikeout. He walked the next batter and Egli hit an RBI single to left to push the lead to 9-5.

Belmont made it 11-5 with back-to-back RBI singles off reliever Alex Siddle.

All 11 runs, nine earned, were charged to Winkelman, who dropped to 3-3 with the loss. He gave up 11 hits, walked four batters and struck out six in 6 2/3 innings.

"He just struggled with command early and when you do that against a really good offensive club it's going to bite you eventually," Bieser said. "At Indiana State he was able to work out of it, but we had a misplay in the field, we walked some guys and allowed them to get that big inning. I think that was frustrating to him. He kind of settled in there and threw the ball decent there for a few innings, but it was really tough for him mentally because he had a lead and he let it slip away. For a guy that's a winner and a guy that's a competitor that really eats at them because when they get a lead they usually expect to hold it and win the ballgame, and I know he was really frustrated."

Southeast's Garret Stockton, who hadn't pitched since April 21 after receiving treatment for a strained UCL, did not allow a hit in a scoreless eighth inning.

Kinney retired Southeast in order over the final two innings for his sixth save of the season. McGrath (8-4) got the win, allowing five runs -- four earned -- on eight hits with four walks and one strikeout.

Belmont (27-26, 15-13) secured its spot in the conference tournament with the win.

The series and regular-season finale has been pushed back to 2 p.m. Saturday.

"Just trying to let them understand why this game got away from us," Bieser said of his postgame message. "We're just trying to learn every single day so some of the things that we didn't do well today I wanted to make sure that I addressed it immediately while it was still fresh in guys' minds. Things like our outfielders threw over the cutoff man's head and allowed another run to get into scoring position and they were able to pick up that run. We had a fly ball down the left field line that we ended up runners at first and second where we should've had runners at second and third because we didn't do the right thing on the bases. Just trying to teach the game and letting them understand that mentally we can never get out of the game, that we've got to be prepared for all those situations."