Southeast Missouri State baseball team evens series with OVC leader SIUE

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State starting pitcher Joey Lucchesi knew exactly what his objective was as he took to the mound for the second game of a three-game series against Ohio Valley Conference leader SIU Edwardsville on Saturday afternoon.

"What I told myself is, 'As long as I get ahead early and pound strikes early, I'll be fine,'" Lucchesi said.

Things worked out to be more than fine for the junior right-hander, who allowed just two hits in seven innings at the Simmons Baseball Complex to move to 4-0 on the mound and to help the Redhawks to a 10-0 road victory over the Cougars.

Southeast improved to 16-10 overall and 8-3 in the conference while SIUE dropped to 9-12 and 9-2.

"The biggest difference was Joey Lucchesi early in the game. He helped set the tone," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "Their pitcher was throwing lights out early, too, and it was tough for both teams to score runs, but Joey setting the tone early on the mound gave our guys a lot of confidence that it was going to be really tough for the other team to score and it kind of allowed us to settle in and start scoring some runs late in the game."

The Redhawks had just two base runners through the first four scoreless innings, and Lucchesi allowed just one base runner on a walk in the third through the first four innings.

Southeast catcher Scott Mitchell recorded a one-out single in the top of the fifth before shortstop Branden Boggetto reached on a fielding error by SIUE third baseman Skyler Geissinger.

Mitchell advanced to third when center fielder Clayton Evans reached on a fielder's choice and scored the first run of the game on an infield single off the glove of Geissinger by third baseman Trevor Ezell.

Second baseman Jason Blum then worked a full count and lofted a fly ball into center that was dropped to score Evans and Ezell and make it 3-0.

"The play that got us going obviously was the sun ball in center field," Bieser said. "I mean, we take advantage of the elements. The ball got in the sun, the wind was blowing in a little bit, and I think it got away from him a little and that drew a lot of life into our club when we got that break. We needed some type of break to get us going."

Lucchesi issued a leadoff walk in the bottom half of the fifth, and the runner advanced to second on a wild pitch before a strikeout. He got center fielder Dustin Woodcock to ground to first baseman Ryan Rippee behind the bag. Rippee advanced towards the bag but then decided to throw to third, allowing Woodcock to reach for Lucchesi's first hit allowed in the game. A double play ended the threat.

"Joey's a competitor, and I think he showed that from innings one through seven today," Mitchell said. "He's got electrifying stuff, throws three pitches all for strikes, and he's able to keep guys off balance whether it's with his fastball, curve or changeup. Great guy, knows what he wants to throw and you give him the ball and he'll just let it do its thing and that's the kind of outings you can expect from him more often than not."

Rippee led off the sixth inning with a triple to the gap in right center and scored on a base hit by right fielder Dalton Hewitt. Left fielder Brendon Neel doubled Hewitt home to make it 5-0. Mitchell followed with a base hit but was stranded.

"The difference from yesterday to today is I thought the first time through the lineup yesterday we were just up there kind of swinging, didn't really have a plan, and today the difference was I saw guys take a lot of pitches," Bieser said of the Redhawks' Friday night loss. "Even when they got in advantage counts they took a pitch to see another pitch so they could be more successful in their later at-bats. I think it paid off later in the game. After we were going through them the third time against [SIUE pitcher PJ] Schuster I think we had some really quality at-bats where we really racked some hits together there in a row."

He was relieved after seven innings of work and struck out a career-high 11 batters and walked three.

Southeast increased its lead to 6-0 in the top of the seventh on an RBI double to left by designated hitter Garrett Gandolfo.

The Redhawks capitalized off another pair of SIUE errors in the eighth, scoring four runs. Ezell, Blum and Gandolfo each had an RBI in the inning.

"I think we just played uptight yesterday," Blum said. "The message today was just play more relaxed and play our game because whenever we do we're going to be a hard team and that's a good team over there on the other side. If you're putting any more pressure on you than you already have you're doing some harm to yourself. The message was just be relaxed and play our game."

The message doesn't change for the defending OVC regular-season champion Redhawks heading into Sunday's series finale against the Cougars, and Bieser said the players could probably "recite it by heart."

"They knew what the message was and they knew that today was a big game to go out and win a ballgame today to go out and give ourselves the opportunity tomorrow to go out and win the series," Bieser said.

Southeast could pull into a tie for first place in the OVC standings with a win Sunday. Lefty Alex Winkelman (0-2) will get the start for the Redhawks. First pitch is set for 11 a.m.