Southeast Missouri State baseball team drops final home game to Murray State

To Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser, something was noticeably different about his team during the series finale against Murray State on Sunday at Capaha Field.

The Redhawks encountered a nine-run deficit in the fourth inning and couldn't come up with a run during key at-bats later in the game in an 11-6 loss in their final home game of the season.

"I don't know if it was just everything that was going on today [with seniors being honored], it was just we were a little quieter today," Bieser said. "It was a long day. We had a lot of things going on, and they've got more stuff coming tonight. There's a lot on their plates.

"They're thinking how they've got to take care of these finals in these next couple days. I mean, there's so much on their plate today that you've really got to be concerned with where they're at right now mentally. The college season to me, physically it's not much of a grind because you don't play every single day, but mentally the college season is a tough, tough grind, and I think it kind of caught up with us today. We just didn't totally seem like mentally we were there."

The Thoroughbreds took a 1-0 lead in the second at-bat of the game on a home run from second baseman Anthony Bayus and chased starting pitcher Ryan Lenaburg during an eight-run fourth.

Southeast Missouri State center fielder Cole Bieser catches a fly ball by Murray State's Tyler Lawrence in front of the wall to end the top of the first inning. (Fred Lynch)

After a double and a single, first baseman Michael Hargrove drove in a run with a single to right field.

Lenaburg then walked a batter to load the bases, then was relieved by Skylar Cobb after hitting a batter to make it 3-0.

Lenaburg (3-3) sustained the loss, allowing six earned runs on five hits in three innings. He struck out one batter.

"Well, I think as a power pitcher, a team that has the approach of 'We're going to keep our swings short, we're going to cut our swings down, we're going to put the ball in play,' I think anytime you've got a power pitcher like Lenaburg, that type of team creates a little bit tougher matchup," Bieser said. "Whereas you've got a bigger swinging team that swings for the fences a little bit more, he's got a chance to mix some pitches and be back and forth with them.

"I knew this was going to be a tough matchup. I thought that he was OK early, and again he just hit that wall and things just fell apart. I thought he lost focus in that inning and there just wasn't any way that he was going to regroup and get out of that inning, and that's kind of the frustrating part because you want to see him get tougher, battle a little bit more and really work hard to get himself out of that inning."

Cobb, who inherited the bases loaded with no outs, had two strikes on Matthew Johnson before hitting him with a pitch to make it 4-0.

A double and a single made it 9-0 before the Redhawks recorded the first outs of the inning on a 5-4-3 double play. Cobb allowed one more hit before striking out Hargrove to end the inning.

Southeast cut the Thoroughbreds lead to 9-5 with two runs in the fourth and three in the sixth.

The Redhawks were in position to chip away even more with two outs in the eighth after center fielder Cole Bieser singled and first basemen Matt Tellor doubled, bringing cleanup hitter Derek Gibson to the plate.

Gibson worked a 2-2 count before looking at a called third strike to end the threat.

"During that at-bat I just wanted to put a ball in play hard," Gibson said. "With two outs, runners on second and third -- that's where I seem to thrive and that's where I'm extremely comfortable and I want to be in that situation. I think it just came down to he made a really good pitch on that last pitch and I was sitting offspeed. I kind of figured I was going to get a curveball, and he kind of back-doored it and put it on the outside corner.

"You know, times like that you've got to tip your hat. He made a great pitch and it's one of those where a pitcher will throw that once every 10 times, and it just so happens he did it right then."

Murray State took an 11-5 lead in the eighth on a two-out, two-RBI triple from Tyler Lawrence.

The Redhawks threatened in their half of the inning when Andy Lennington and Dalton Hewitt drew back-to-back walks, but Cole Ferguson hit into a 1-5-3 double play and a strikeout stranded Hewitt on second.

"You know, we got quiet a little bit during the middle of the game and it kind of seemed like guys maybe doubted a little bit for the first time, but as soon as we get a runner on everybody starts saying, 'Yeah, this is the team that we know that we are and we're going to come back and play extremely hard,' and that's what we did," Steve Bieser said. "We get first and second and just late in the game we needed to score a couple runs in that inning where Cole bounced into that double play. That kind of took the wind out of our sails there and it was kind of difficult to rebound from that."

Cole Bieser, who drew a two-out walk and advanced to third on Tellor's single, scored Southeast's final run when Gibson bunted for a hit in the ninth.

The Redhawks fell to 31-16 and 21-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference and will face second-place Tennessee Tech in their final conference series next weekend.

Southeast has a 3 1/2 game lead on the Golden Eagles (35-13, 16-8 OVC), who have three conference games remaining after facing Southeast.

"I think it's the perfect scenario for us," Steve Bieser said. "I mean, we need to be playing playoff baseball late in the year, and to me, teams play much better when they've got to play their way into it and when there's some pressure out there. When we get into being able to cruise through the season because we've got things locked up, it's hard to flip the switch when you get back to the conference tournament, and I like the fact that we've got to compete and really go after that series with everything. It's not like, 'Hey, we can win one game and then sit back and coast through it.' We want to win that series and we want to make that a playoff scenario right there."