Southeast Missouri State baseball team has five-game winning streak snapped by EIU

~ Eastern Illinois avoided a sweep with a 10-3 victory

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser anticipated runs would be hard to come by when his team faced Eastern Illinois pitcher Joe Greenfield on Saturday.

What he might not have seen coming was the Panthers' offense putting up 10 runs on nine hits, which led to a 10-3 Southeast loss at Capaha Field.

"Greenfield has plus stuff, and we knew that if he could command the strike zone and throw the ball where he wanted to today that it was going to be a very low-scoring, tight game," Bieser said. "We were able to keep it in check for a little bit, and then their offense erupted. Greenfield was really throwing the ball well. He kept us off stride all game, and we just could not manufacture and get a couple hits in a row. He made a few mistakes and we got a couple hits here and there, but then he'd settle back in and really be tough on our hitters and make really good pitches. A guy like that -- when they're on, they're very tough."

The Ohio Valley Conference-leading Redhawks (27-12 overall, 17-4 OVC) matched the Panthers nine hits in the game but never plated more than one run in an inning in seeing their win streak ended at five games.

Southeast, which won the first two games of the series, scored a run in the first and held the lead until a three-run fourth inning by EIU.

Redhawks starter Travis Hayes gave up a leadoff double and a single before EIU third baseman Brant Valach cleared the bases with a three-run home run to left field.

"I thought Travis overall threw the ball OK today, but it wasn't his best outing obviously," Bieser said. "In that inning that he gave up the runs he made three mistakes and they took advantage of every mistake he made and they hit the ball extremely hard.

"He just left a little slider that didn't do anything up in the zone and Valach put a good swing on it and took it out of the park for three runs. He did enough to keep us in the game if we could've just done something offensively to kind of get back in the game there early."

The Redhawks got only two hits over the next three innings, and the Panthers (12-27, 6-12 OVC) extended their lead in the seventh.

Hayes (5-1) hit two batters before a two-out single made it 4-1. He was relieved after 6 2/3 innings and took his first loss. He allowed six earned runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

Greg Mosel relieved Hayes with two on and two out, and Valach blasted his second three-run shot of the day to give the Panthers a six-run lead.

Southeast's Cole Ferguson came through with an RBI double in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-2, but the Panthers answered with three runs in the eighth.

Mosel gave up a leadoff double, walked a batter and hit a man to load the bases before Alex Siddle replaced him.

Siddle hit the first batter he faced to force in a run, and a sacrifice fly made it 9-2.

Perry Middleton came in with one out and runners on the corners. EIU second baseman Mitch Gasbarro laid down a sac bunt to make it an eight-run game before Middleton got Taylor to line out to center to end the inning.

Garret Stockton retired the Panthers in order in the ninth.

"Greg Mosel was just struggling with command," Bieser said. "He hit a couple batters and could not make an adjustment to get the ball back down in the strike zone and just was all over the place. There was just no adjustment on his end to get it worked out."

Southeast got three two-out hits in the bottom of the inning from three pinch-hitters to score its final run.

Clayton Evans doubled and reached third on a throwing error, and he scored after Alex Burridge and Branden Boggetto had back-to-back hits.

Gibson and first baseman Matt Tellor both went 2 for 4, but they were the only Redhawks with multiple hits.

Greenfield went eight innings and allowed two earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks. He improved to 5-4 with the win.

"It's just a game that you've got to put by the way side," Bieser said. "You can't go and dwell on the game. We basically got shut down by a very good arm, and you've just got to accept that sometimes in this game, that there was nothing we could do about it. I know our guys were ready to play."

The Redhawks, who have a three-game lead in the OVC, travel to Carbondale, Ill., return to action at 5 p.m. Tuesday when it visits SIU Carbondale.

"After a day like today you've almost got to bite the bullet and regroup," Gibson said. "We don't want to change anything that we're doing. We're doing everything right, we're working extremely hard ... today just wasn't our day. "