Southeast Missouri State baseball team loses in 11 innings on wild pitch

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southeast Missouri State baseball team wanted to make amends after recently tying a school record for runs allowed during a 25-3 home loss to SIU Carbondale.

Southeast did -- to an extent.

The Redhawks didn't suffer anything nearly like that April 9 performance, but they did suffer another loss to the Salukis.

Southeast, down to its last strike, scored a ninth-inning run on a wild pitch to tie Tuesday's game and force extra innings.

Host SIU scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th to post a 3-2 victory on a windy, blustery day not at all conducive for hitting.

"They aren't 25-3 better than us," sophomore Nolan Fisher said. "We battled, but it was a tough way to lose a game."

Southeast fell to 20-22 after dropping its seventh straight nonconference contest. SIU improved to 19-21 with its eighth consecutive nonconference win.

"It's a real tough loss. I feel like we had some chances," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said.

With the strong wind blowing in, and with the outfielders playing in, runs were hard to come by on both sides.

"It was a tough day to hit, but we can't make excuses," sophomore Andy Lennington said. "We had some opportunities. We just didn't come through with the big hit."

SIU had by far the best chances early as the Salukis stranded eight runners over the first three innings, including the bases loaded twice.

The Redhawks were able to keep things scoreless until they finally pushed across the game's first run in the sixth inning.

Junior Matt Tellor delivered an RBI double, which set the Redhawks up at second and third with just one out. But they failed to do further damage.

"We didn't capitalize the way we wanted to," Fisher said.

SIU went ahead 2-1 in the seventh inning on a two-run single by Ryan Casillas. It looked like the Salukis would make that lead stand up.

But Southeast took advantage of the game's only error, in the ninth inning, to forge a deadlock.

Lennington's sent a one-out ground ball into the hole at short, where Ryan Rosthenhausler made a nice backhand play. Rosthenhausler came up firing even though he had no realistic chance of retiring the speedy Lennington, who reached on the infield single and took second when the throw was wild.

Sophomore Dalton Hewitt singled to right field. With the outfielders playing shallow, Lennington had to stop at third.

Freshman Branden Boggetto struck out, and Fisher faced a 2-2 count when a pitch got away, allowing Lennington to easily score the tying run.

"When you can push across a run in the ninth inning, the effort's there," Bieser said.

Southeast had a runner on second in the 10th inning and runners on first and second in the 11th but failed to capitalize.

The Salukis then ended things in the bottom of the 11th without a hit. Jake Welch, a Bernie High School graduate, drew a leadoff walk from junior left-hander Skylar Cobb, who had just entered the game. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk, freshman Tyler Thomas came in to pitch. A walk loaded the bases, and Thomas uncorked a wild pitch as Welch scored easily.

Cobb took the loss.

"We came back, and we found a way to win," SIU coach Ken Henderson said. "So I give our guys credit for not quitting in that situation and finding a way to win the game."

Southeast now has an alarming 48 wild pitches this season. The Redhawks also wild-pitched home the winning run during last Tuesdays' 5-4, 12-inning home loss to Arkansas State.

"Wild pitches have been killing us," Bieser said.

Both teams' pitching was strong most of the way.

Two Southeast freshmen kept SIU scoreless for the first six innings. Lefty Alex Winkelman worked around six hits and three walks to navigate the first four frames. Alex Siddle kept the shutout going for the next two innings.

"When you have two freshmen come in and throw like that against a good Missouri Valley Conference team, that's very impressive," Bieser said.

Siddle was charged with the two seventh-inning runs before seniors Tony Zerrusen and Bobby Hurst both fired off two scoreless frames.

"With what the back end of the bullpen did, it's frustrating we couldn't get another run across," Bieser said.

SIU outhit Southeast 12-8 as the Redhawks had only four hits over the first eight innings. The Salukis stranded 16 runners compared to nine for Southeast.

Fisher and Lennington each had two hits for Southeast. Welch led SIU with three hits.

Southeast sophomore Jason Blum extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a 10th-inning single.

"That was embarrassing. You never want to lose like that," Lennington said of the earlier 25-3 shellacking. "We definitely wanted to come out and play better. I thought we played pretty well.

"We definitely had an opportunity to beat them. They're no better than we are man for man. We just didn't come through."

Southeast is right back in action today, hosting Division II Missouri-St. Louis (21-15) at 5 p.m. The Tritons have won seven straight games.