Southeast Missouri State baseball team rocks Southern Illinois with HRs, doubles, win 14-8

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A stout offense and a stingy bullpen powered the Southeast Missouri State baseball team to a resounding win over regional rival Southern Illinois-Carbondale.

The Redhawks banged out 18 hits, including three home runs and five doubles, during Tuesday's 14-8 victory.

"It's an excellent win for us. We really played well," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan, whose squad improved to 5-3 on its nine-game stretch of road games.

Southeast (18-14) had lost four of the last five meetings with SIU (11-20), which had a four-game winning streak end. The teams conclude their annual two-game series April 26 in Cape Girardeau.

"It's always great to beat a rival," junior Trenton Moses said. "We smashed the ball around a little bit."

Moses did plenty of smashing. He homered, doubled twice and drove in a career-high six runs while scoring three times. His three-run blast in the second inning, his fourth home run of the season, broke a 5-5 tie.

"Not a bad day," the Advance High School graduate said after the performance pushed his team-leading batting average to .373.

Senior Brett Russell also hit his fourth home run of the season while adding a double and three RBIs.

Senior Casey Jones, last year's leading hitter who has scuffled much of the season but appears to be coming on, had three hits, including his first homer of the year. He drove in a pair.

Senior Michael Adamson had three hits, pushing his average to .359, second-best on the squad.

Junior Jesse Tierney contributed three hits and senior Blake Slattery from Central High School added two hits.

"We had a great day offensively," Hogan said.

Senior Josh Syberg, who had not pitched since March 22 due to a strained groin, allowed six runs on six hits in three innings.

Southeast's bullpen settled down things with six innings of two-run, five-hit ball. Senior Kirk Boeller, from Notre Dame Regional High School, was the relief star.

Boeller started the fourth inning with Southeast clinging to an 8-6 lead. He fired three scoreless frames, keeping SIU at bay until the Redhawks broke open things with a six-run sixth inning.

"He threw lights out," Hogan said. "It was so great to see because he's struggled the last few weeks. In hindsight, we probably wore him out pitching him too much."

Boeller, who notched the victory and improved to 2-1, began the season strong but had been hit hard lately.

"Finally I had command of all my pitches. I could throw them all for strikes and had good movement," said Boeller, who allowed two hits, walked two and struck out three. "Hopefully this gets me back on track, to throwing like I was earlier in the year."

Senior Jacob Wente allowed a run in the seventh inning, freshman Christian Hull continued his solid rookie season with a hitless eighth and senior Trent Wise gave up a run in the ninth.

"Our relievers really did a good job," Hogan said.

Southeast started strong with four first-inning runs after having two outs and nobody on base. Jones had a two-run homer while Moses and Russell added RBI doubles.

SIU answered with five runs on five hits in the bottom of the first before the Redhawks came back with their four-run second that put them on top to stay.

"We answered right back after they went ahead," Moses said. "That shows a lot about the character of this team."

Also among the highlights for Southeast was senior Nick Harris appearing in a game for the first time since March 1.

Harris, who had been sidelined with a knee injury after missing most of last year with an elbow injury, pinch-hit in the ninth inning. His long fly ball was dropped for an error.

Southeast concludes its road swing today with a 6 p.m. contest at Saint Louis University. The Billikens beat the Redhawks 14-8 on March 21 in Cape Girardeau.