Southeast Missouri State baseball team drops first conference game on Friday

When it comes to facing an Ohio Valley Conference team in extra innings, Morehead State isn't the team to have in the opposing dugout.

All three of the Eagles' conference wins have come in extra innings, and this time that win came from a bases loaded walk that ultimately led to a 9-8 loss for the Southeast Missouri State baseball team -- its first in conference play.

Skylar Cobb entered the game in relief for Southeast with the game tied in the top of the 11th inning. He inherited a bases loaded, one out situation.

After the Redhawks recorded the second out on a grounder that was thrown home to get the lead runner, Morehead shortstop Robby Spencer reached base on balls to plate the go-ahead run.

"That's just the way the ball bounces sometimes," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "Skylar came in and did a really good job. We had one out and executed some really good pitches on the first hitter he faced, and it looked like we were going to get out of that. You know, he just lost it for a little bit and ended up walking a guy, but he got out of that inning.

"When the inning started I thought if we could get out of that with one run then we still had a chance to win this game, and I thought he came in and did a good job to get us in the dugout, down one run, and we were at the top of our order. We just went down pretty silent in the top of our order with one, two and three."

Cobb struck out the next batter, but Southeast's batters went down in order to end the game.

"I'm pretty disappointed with the game today," Southeast shortstop Branden Boggetto said. "We came out hot and put some runs up early and we had a lot of energy, and then I think we just dropped off there at the end and let them get back into it. We made some mistakes, they capitalized and we didn't have it today."

When asked why the team "dropped off" Boggetto elaborated: "We let too many guys on base that shouldn't get on base, and they got clutch hits. We just didn't play like we should play."

Southeast led 3-0 after three innings. Designated hitter Derek Gibson led off the second inning with a solo shot and Southeast picked up a pair of runs in the third on a Cole Bieser sac fly to center.

Morehead's Chris Robinson hit a two-run home run in the fourth to cut the Redhawks' lead to one but Matt Tellor led off the bottom half of the inning with a homer of his own to make it 4-2.

The Eagles took their first lead in the sixth inning. Christian Hull relieved starting pitcher Tyler Iago with no outs and the bases loaded.

Hull gave up a back-to-back RBI singles before getting Spencer to hit into a double play that scored a run to make it 5-4. The Eagles extended that to 7-4 in the seventh on a two-out, two-RBI triple.

"I thought their offense looked awful good against our arms," Bieser said. "I thought we got in some counts and we left the ball up on some really positive counts for our pitchers to be able to execute some good pitches, and we just really didn't execute those pitches that we need to execute.

"We definitely, we know we've got to clean up those problems and make sure that we're not continuing to make those same problems and having those same mistakes throughout the season, but it's early for our guys and hopefully they learn from their mistakes tonight because we gave up a lot of two-strike hits and we've got to be better when we get two strikes on somebody."

Southeast chipped away at the lead, scoring two runs on a throwing error by Spencer at shortstop in the seventh and tying the game on an RBI single to right center from Boggetto in the eighth.

Morehead went up one run again in the ninth, but Southeast tied it on an single to left field from Gibson, which looked like it could've been caught but unexpectedly dropped.

It was the final hit the Redhawks would muster in the loss.

Greg Mosel (1-1) was tabbed with the loss while Craig Pearcy (3-1) secured the win.

Morehead out-hit Southeast 16-13. Southeast's pitching staff combined for 12 strikeouts but walked six batters and hit three with pitches. Morehead pitchers struck out 11 and only walked two batters.

"I just think they caught a few breaks and we didn't," right fielder Dalton Hewitt said. "We had that walk in extra innings, but it happens. It's baseball. Come out tomorrow and play a little bit better."

Southeast (13-8, 6-1 OVC) faces the Eagles (10-11, 3-4 OVC) at 2 p.m. Saturday in the second game of the series at Capaha Field.