Southeast Missouri State baseball team eliminated from the OVC tournament

Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Tenn. -- Austin Peay got revenge and extinguished Southeast Missouri State's surprising Ohio Valley Conference tournament run.

The top-seeded Governors, who lost to Southeast in their tournament opener, ended the Redhawks' season Saturday with a 10-6 win in the losers bracket final of the six-team, double-elimination event.

"We didn't do enough to get it done," senior catcher Jesse Tierney said.

Sixth-seeded Southeast put a major crimp in Austin Peay's hopes of defending its tournament title with Thursday's 4-3 upset that propelled the Redhawks into Friday's winners bracket final.

Southeast’s Tony Zerrusen pitches to an Austin Peay batter during Saturday’s elimination game in the OVC tournament.

But a 7-6 loss to Eastern Illinois sent the Redhawks into the losers bracket, and Southeast wound up with a second consecutive third-place tournament finish after going 2-2.

Not bad for an inexperienced squad that compiled the worst record (23-36) and worst OVC regular-season finish (seventh) under 18th year coach Mark Hogan.

"Two tough losses at the end of the tournament," Hogan said. "But we had a really good tournament overall. Third is nothing to be ashamed about.

"I'm proud of my seniors, and [it was] a great learning experience for the younger guys."

The Redhawks, with just six seniors, were last in the 10-team conference after a month of the league schedule before finishing strong to make the program's OVC-record 18th consecutive tournament appearance.

"This team went through so much. Everybody just did a great job until the end," All-American senior third baseman Trenton Moses said. "We really finished strong, I feel like. We went further than a lot of people expected.

"We made a good run. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it done at the end."

Austin Peay, which swept three games from Southeast in their regular-season series in late March, had lost six consecutive tournament meetings against the Redhawks.

The Govs, who have won back-to-back OVC regular-season titles, reversed that trend Saturday. They held off Southeast after building a 6-2 lead through three innings.

"It was a tough game," Hogan said. "We had several opportunities, kind of like [Friday] night."

Southeast started strong Saturday, scoring a run in each of the first two innings and knocking out Kacy Kemmer after he retired only three batters. Kemmer was making just his second start of the season,

Senior shortstop Kenton Parmley led off the bottom of the first inning with his second home run of the tournament and 13th of the season to give Southeast a quick lead.

Parmley made his 217th career start to set the school record. He already held career program records for hits and at-bats.

The Redhawks made it 2-0 in the second inning but failed to fully capitalize on a bases-loaded, nobody-out situtation.

Zane Leffew, who relieved Kemmer, bailed out the Govs. He got a double play, with a run scoring, and wound up allowing just three runs over 6 2/3 innings.

"We got shut down by their reliever," Hogan said.

Austin Peay went ahead for good with a three-run third inning that was highlighted by Greg Bachman's two-RBI single.

Bachman, the OVC leader in RBIs, had four hits and three RBIs Saturday after he had struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to end Thursday's loss.

The Govs made it 6-2 with three runs in the fourth inning.

Southeast came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. True freshman DH Ryan Barnes had an RBI single, and sophomore center fielder Cole Bieser delivered a two-RBI single.

Austin Peay added insurance with a run in the seventh and three unearned runs in the eighth to go ahead 10-5.

"A couple of those innings got away from us," Tierney said.

Southeast threatened to make things interesting by loading the bases with two outs in the eighth inning.

Tyler Rogers, Austin Peay's closer, struck out Barnes to preserve the 10-5 lead.

Tierney's RBI single off Mike Hebert in the ninth inning made it 10-6, but Hebert finished off the victory.

Junior college transfer left-hander Zack Smith (2-8) took the loss. He allowed six runs and nine hits over the first four innings.

Juco transfer Tony Zerrusen gave up one run over 2 1/3 innings. Left-hander Ryan Prickett, the only senior on the pitching staff, allowed three unearned runs in 1 2/3 innings. Juco transfer left-hander Ryan Kendall worked a scoreless ninth inning.

The Redhawks were outhit 16-9. Parmley, Bieser and redshirt freshman right fielder Andy Lennington all had two hits.

Moses went hitless for the second straight contest but extended his school-record streak of reaching base safely to 79 games with a walk.

Parmley had no regretsdespite the loss.

"We were 3-9 [in OVC play]. Nobody had ideas we would come this far," Parmley said.