Southeast Missouri State baseball team falls into losers bracket at OVC tourney

~ Southeast fell into the losers bracket with an 8-2 loss to Jacksonville State

JACKSON, Tenn. -- Same song, third verse for the Southeast Missouri State baseball team at the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

And that's not a good thing.

The Redhawks have fallen into the losers bracket after just one game for the third straight year.

Third-seeded, defending tournament champion Jacksonville State beat second-seeded Southeast 8-2 on Thursday in a winners bracket semifinal of the six-team, double-elimination event at Pringles Park.

"Things just didn't go our way," junior third baseman Trenton Moses said.

Southeast (32-21) has an 11 a.m. elimination game today against sixth-seeded Tennessee-Martin. If the Redhawks win they play again at 3 p.m.

The Redhawks face the daunting task of needing five straight victories today through Sunday in order to claim the title.

"It would have been nice to win," senior right fielder Nick Harris said. "We'll have to dig it out. ... We'll have to come together and fight."

Southeast entered play Thursday having suffered five straight OVC tournament defeats, the last three in extra innings. They lost their first two tournament games each of the past two years.

The Redhawks believed this time would prove different because they earned one of the two opening-round byes for the first time under the current tournament format that began in 2005.

That didn't help against JSU (35-21), which rallied to beat sixth-seeded Tennessee-Martin 9-8 in Wednesday's first round but led wire to wire Thursday.

The Gamecocks improved to 21-9 in the tournament since joining the OVC in 2004. They advanced to tonight's winners bracket final, needing just two more victories to repeat as champions.

"It's disappointing, but sometimes you just have to tip your cap," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "They did a lot of things well."

JSU, which won its seventh straight game, received stellar pitching from a freshman to stymie Southeast's potent offense.

Left-hander Casey Antley, who has had a solid rookie season but had not gone more than 4 2/3 innings in an outing, fired six shutout frames.

"You just have to congratulate the way that guy started it off," Hogan said. "Holding us to two runs. ... We're just a better offensive club than we showed. Their left-hander had a lot to do with it."

Antley (3-1) carried a three-hitter and a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. He was relieved after allowing a leadoff double and a walk but Southeast failed to score. Antley struck out six and walked four.

"I really didn't know what to expect," Antley said of his first postseason appearance. "I just wanted to give my team the best outing possible."

Southeast, after having several solid chances, finally broke through in the eighth inning. The Redhawks scored twice on four hits.

Junior shortstop Kenton Parmley led off with a single. Southeast got a break when a routine double-play ball off the bat of Harris was thrown away, allowing Harris to reach second after Parmley was forced out.

Senior left fielder Michael Adamson's single sent redshirt freshman pinch-runner Cole Bieser to third. Bieser scored on a single by Moses.

Senior pinch-hitter Louie Haseltine's sacrifice fly plated Adamson. Junior pinch-hitter Kody Campbell's single brought the go-ahead run to the plate before the rally died.

The Gamecocks made it extra tough on Southeast by adding four ninth-inning insurance runs, three off freshman left-hander Christian Hull and one off junior left-hander Ryan Prickett.

"They did a great job all the way through," Hogan said of the Gamecocks. "We get two in the eighth and the game's right there. Then they pull away again."

Southeast found itself in a quick hole on Jake Sharrock's home run with one out in the top of the first inning off senior left-hander Jordan Underwood (5-1), who went six innings and suffered his first loss of the season.

An unearned run in the third inning made it 2-0 and JSU scored two fifth-inning runs on three hits to build a 4-0 lead.

The Redhawks had a major threat in the first inning, loading the bases with one out before Antley induced a double play.

"Getting out of that inning was awesome," Antley said. "That took a lot of weight off my shoulders."

Antley also worked out of a runner-on-third, one-out fourth-inning jam caused by an error. Southeast left 10 on the bases.

"We stranded some base-runners early," Moses said. "Give credit to the pitcher. He made some good pitches. He kept the ball down."