Southeast Missouri State baseball team drops finale of OVC regular season

~ The Golden Eagles erupted for 10 runs in the eighth inning of Sunday's 21-10 win

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- There was no shortage of offense in Sunday's series finale between the Southeast Missouri State baseball team and Tennessee Tech.

The two teams nearly matched each other on the scoreboard through the first seven innings -- a stretch that featured multiple lead changes that led to the Golden Eagles having just a one-run advantage after 7 1/2 innings.

But Tech erupted for 10 runs in the bottom of the eighth at Bush Stadium to win 21-10 and keep the Redhawks from handing them their first sweep of the season.

"I thought we stayed right there toe-to-toe, and in the last two innings we just didn't pitch very well and they did a pretty good job of pitching," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said.

Southeast Missouri State's Cole Ferguson hits a solo home run against Tennessee Tech during the seventh inning Sunday in Cookeville, Tenn. (WAYNE MCPHERSON ~ Southeast Missourian)

"You look at the first seven innings and we're playing a good game," Bieser added. "Those two innings are innings we're going to flush away. ... This is a different game if we pitch Travis Hayes today, and that's something that we knew that we might not do anyway. If we've got a pretty good starter throwing against them it probably doesn't get in to 20 runs, I can tell you that."

The Golden Eagles led 11-10 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. A solo home run from left fielder Hunter Hudson started Tech's surge.

They plated nine runs with two outs in the inning.

"Our pitchers struggled out of the bullpen there in the seventh and eighth," Bieser said. "We had what we wanted there with Skylar [Cobb] and Brady [Wright] ready to go in those two innings and they just had a tough time executing pitches, and when you have a tough time executing your offspeed against this team, you're going to be in trouble."

Southeast jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a home run from first baseman Matt Tellor before the Golden Eagles jumped on starter Christian Hull for three runs in their half of the frame.

Southeast Missouri State reliever Greg Mosel delivers a pitch to a Tennessee Tech batter Sunday in Cookeville, Tennessee. Mosel was the lone Redhawk pitcher to throw a scoreless inning during the 21-10 loss. (WAYNE MCPHERSON ~ Special to Southeast Missourian)

Hull lasted just one-third of an inning. He walked leadoff batter Zach Zarzour before giving up a two-run home run to Zach Stephens and a solo shot to Brandon Thomasson. He allowed one more hit and hit a batter before exiting the game.

"It's just his command and his confidence," Bieser said about Hull. "I mean, those are two things that he's got to get cleaned up before the conference tournament. Obviously we did not want to see an outing like this from Christian. No. 1, to compete in this game we needed two or three innings out of him to start this and keep us in a good situation."

"But it's just we didn't see enough confidence and enough strikes to continue to let him go out there and throw. I think maybe this is a fix that we've got to fix in our bullpen or not an actual game situation, and that's kind of what we're going to work on right now."

The Redhawks regained the lead in the top of the fourth. With the bases loaded and one out, Cole Bieser reached on a fielder's choice that scored a run. Tellor tied it with a single and Gibson singled to plate the go-ahead run for a 5-4 lead.

Back-to-back Tech doubles in its half of the inning erased Southeast's advantage and a sacrifice fly and two hits put the Golden Eagles up 7-5. A run in the fifth gave them a three-run cushion before Southeast responded again.

The Redhawks scored four times in the sixth with the help of an RBI triple by Gibson to regain a 9-8 lead, but Tech's Thomasson blasted his second home run of the game to knot the score at 9-9 in the bottom of the inning.

Designated-hitter Cole Ferguson staked Southeast to its final lead in the seventh with a solo home run, but it was all Tech from there.

The Golden Eagles (37-15, 17-10 OVC) plated two runs in the seventh with just one hit, capitalizing on a hit batter and two walks, before the 10-run eighth.

"I think what we were looking at was we had four guys that we wanted to use [on the mound] and we used those four guys, and we needed one of those guys to step up and throw three-plus innings," Bieser said. "We were trying to keep guys around a 50-pitch limit today."

Bieser said he wanted to follow Hull with Greg Mosel, Alex Siddle and Brady Wright.

"We were kind of wanting to use that combination so we had something to go into Vanderbilt and work against Vanderbilt with, and we actually had to use a lot more than what we were expecting to use today."

The Redhawks used seven pitchers, including infielder Nolan Fisher in the eighth. Mosel had the longest outing -- two innings -- and pitched the only scoreless inning for Southeast in the second.

Perry Middleton, who took the loss to fall to 1-1, pitched two innings and allowed three earned runs on two hits with three walks, three hit batters and three strikeouts.

Southeast (33-17, 23-7 OVC) had 14 hits in the loss, while Tech had 20. Gibson was 4 for 5 with two RBIs, while right fielder Clayton Evans went 3 for 4 and scored twice.

Tellor, who had two RBIs, Ferguson and shortstop Andy Lack each recorded two hits.

The Redhawks travel to Nashville to face Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday,

"Games like that where you get beat like that -- it's kind of like the Austin Peay game [where we lost 22-4] -- you've got to have a short memory and blank it out quick and move on," Gibson said. "And we do a really good job of that. We're not going to take this into Tuesday. Tuesday's a brand-new day, and we'll be just fine."