Southeast Missouri State baseball team emerges from early hole to beat Missouri State

When Southeast Missouri State designated hitter Derek Gibson stepped to the plate with one out and the game tied in the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday afternoon, he knew he had to trust the approach his coaches had taught him.

Gibson hit a solo shot over the wall in right-center field that ended up being all the Redhawks would need in a 6-5 defeat of in-state rival Missouri State at Capaha Field.

"Whenever I came up to the plate I just wanted to do anything I could to put a ball in play hard, and I was extremely aggressive, but selectively aggressive," Gibson said. "In a situation like that where it's getting later in the game, the guy's having a hard time throwing strikes, you want to stay aggressive but you also want to understand that he's got to come into your zone.

"I was looking for a pitch in my zone, and I got it. He threw a 2-1 changeup, and our hitting coach Dillon Lawson preaches, 'Look fastball, and if it's an off-speed pitch just use your hands and put it in play somewhere,' and that's what I did. I kept my hands back and put a good swing on it."

Gibson's home run gave Southeast (10-6) its first lead which the Redhawks were able to protect for its fourth straight win. Southeast also snapped a three-game losing streak to the Bears (8-6), who appeared in good shape to extend their mastery over the Redhawks after taking a 4-0 lead in the first two innings.

Missouri State's Tate Matheny, the son of St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, hit a leadoff double to start the game before scoring on a triple by Dylan Becker, who scored the second run on a Spencer Johnson single. Johnson stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a groundout to make it 3-0.

Becker hit an RBI double in the second inning to make it 4-0, but the Redhawks began to chip away at the deficit in the bottom of the inning.

Andy Lennington singled to left field and later advanced to third when Scott Mitchell singled to right. Andy Lack, who finished the game 2 for 2, laid down a successful safety-squeeze bunt that went for a single and scored Lennington.

"For the past month in our BP sessions we work on that every day, and it's a first-and-third bunt to the first baseman, so our third base runner can read the bunt down," Lack said. "It's been working in practice, and I knew it was probably on because I did it yesterday in practice."

Mitchell scored when the third baseman committed an error on Jason Blum's grounder to cut deficit to 4-2.

Lack, Gibson and Southeast coach Steve Bieser agreed the Redhawks never doubted they could come back after Missouri State took the early lead.

"I think kind of our philosophy is there's nine innings, there's 27 outs, so we're going to make mistakes within the 27 outs, but just because you make them the first three [outs] or you give up early runs, you cannot panic at that point," Bieser said. "You've got to play all 27 outs hard, and if you do that, you're going to have a chance to win every time. They buy into that philosophy, they understand that. ... It's important for us to get wins like this during the season for them to believe in that."

Skylar Cobb entered the game and pitched a scoreless third inning for Southeast, and the Redhawks were able to tie the game in the home half.

Dalton Hewitt reached on an error and Gibson singled, and both advanced on a fielding error.

Missouri State's starting pitcher was called for a balk, which scored Hewitt and moved Gibson to third. Gibson scored on a groundout to knot it at 4-4.

Matheny quickly broke the tie, leading off the fourth with a homer to right field, but Lack answered with a leadoff home run -- his first of his collegiate career -- in the bottom of the inning.

"I haven't had a confident feeling like I had at the plate in a little while," Lack said. "It felt good to go up there and see the ball well and get my pitch to hit and be able to get the barrel on it."

Gibson's home run was the only other offense needed as the Redhawks' bullpen did not allow a run over the final five innings.

Seven Southeast pitchers saw action in the game. Garret Stockton pitched the first inning, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk. Perry Middleton pitched the second inning, allowing one run on one hit. He hit a batter and walked a batter.

Cobb took over in the third and pitched 2 1/3 innings. He allowed one run on four hits.

Winning pitcher Alex Siddle (1-1), Brady Wright, Greg Mosel and Christian Hull combined to pitch the final 4 2/3 innings.

Hull pitched a hitless ninth to pick up his second save of the season.

"Our pitching was kind of structured going into the game. Every guy that threw today knew that he was getting the ball and throwing at some point, so I think that does help our arms," Bieser said. "It's just the fact that early in the game, I thought Missouri State came out and they really took advantage of some pitches that got a little out of the strike zone and hit the ball hard. Sometimes those balls are going to be right at somebody. Our early guys did just enough to keep us in the game. They didn't totally let it blow up, and that's an important thing.

"Then when we got down to the back side of Siddle, Wright, Mosel and Hull, we knew that if we could have a lead or if we could have the energy that we had in our dugout or the energy that they had, we were going to be pretty good in that situation. I thought that everybody that got an opportunity today was prepared for their opportunity, and did a good job in what they needed to do."

Southeast returns to Ohio Valley Conference play with a three-game series against Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Ky., starting Friday.