Southeast Missouri State baseball team loses 9-5 to SIU Carbondale

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southeast Missouri State baseball team made plenty of noise late Tuesday.

But the Redhawks could not overcome shaky play early and the seven-inning dominance of SIU Carbondale pitcher Nathan Dorris.

Those two factors made the difference during the host Salukis' 9-5 victory that extended their winning streak to five games.

SIU improved to 23-18 and snapped a four-game losing streak to the Redhawks with a split in the season series.

Southeast fell to 14-28, but the Redhawks still have won six of their last 10 after previously losing 14 of 15.

"We made it close at the end," Southeast senior catcher Jesse Tierney said after the Redhawks rallied from a 9-0 deficit with five runs in the eighth inning. "But their lefty was good. His breaking ball was one of the best I've seen all year."

Southeast coach Mark Hogan and his players correctly pointed out that Dorris is not a typical midweek starter.

"It's not often you see a guy like that who starts in midweek games," Southeast sophomore left fielder Derek Gibson said.

Dorris, a junior left-hander, was in SIU's weekend rotation earlier in the season before struggling and being relegated to a midweek role.

He might be back to pitching weekend games if he keeps performing like he has been lately.

Dorris, who was drafted in the 45th round out of high school and at one time signed with Vanderbilt but never pitched for the Commodores, fired seven shutout innings. He tied his career high with nine strikeouts and did not issue a walk while allowing six hits.

"He's really not a Tuesday guy," Hogan said. "He's tremendous. I knew it was going to be tough with the way he was throwing."

Dorris also struck out nine April 10 in Cape Girardeau, although he suffered the loss when Southeast beat SIU 4-1.

"He looked better today than the last time, even though he was good the last time," Gibson said. "He was phenomenal."

Dorris (6-3), who leads SIU in wins, has 23 strikeouts and two walks in his last three starts that cover 21 innings. He did much of his damage Tuesday with a sharp curveball.

"[The breaking ball] has always been my bread and butter," Dorris said. "I was able to get it over today and really get ahead in the count with it, and that was something that really helped. I was also able to command it out of the zone, which helped me to get a lot of strikeouts."

Dorris, who began the year 4-0, has won his last two starts.

"He was outstanding," SIU coach Ken Henderson said. "That's the way he was the first couple weeks. He had great command all day with his fastball. His breaking ball was the best it's been for him in a while. It was a true out pitch for him today. He was in control all day and did a great job for seven innings."

Southeast finally was able to break through against SIU's bullpen. It got six hits over the last two innings.

The Redhawks used three hits, two walks and two errors to score five runs in the eighth inning, but just one was earned. Tierney and senior second baseman Taylor Heon had RBIs.

"I was real impressed with the way we kept battling," Gibson said.

Southeast forced SIU to bring in its closer for the ninth inning. The Redhawks loaded the bases with two outs and brought the tying run to the plate against Todd Eaton before he ended the game with a strikeout.

"I was proud of the effort. We kept fighting. We're getting better," said Hogan, whose squad stranded 11 runners. "We had our chances."

True freshman left-hander Will Spitzfaden, who pitched 7 2/3 innings for his first collegiate win in his debut start against Arkansas State last week, did not fare nearly as well Tuesday.

Spitzfaden (1-1) allowed six runs, four earned, over 2 1/3 innings. He gave up four hits, walked three and hit a batter.

"A pitcher like that [Dorris], you really want to stay ahead of them," Gibson said. "You don't want to get down early."

SIU scored three runs in both the first and third innings, then tacked on three more in the sixth.

Southeast outhit the Salukis 12-7. The Redhawks got two hits each from Gibson, Heon, Tierney, senior third baseman Trenton Moses and redshirt freshman right fielder Jason Blum.

Moses extended his school-record streak of reaching base safely to 62 games. Neither the NCAA nor OVC keeps a record for that category.

Gibson extended his hitting streak to 26 games.

True freshman Grant Davis, Southeast's fifth and final pitcher, fired two perfect innings with two strikeouts.

"He threw well," Hogan said. "He's a futures guy for us."

Chris Serritella banged out three doubles for SIU, which is in second place in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Southeast, which is tied for eighth in the 10-team Ohio Valley Conference, resumes OVC play Friday with the start of a three-game series at Tennessee-Martin.