Southeast Missouri State baseball team splits doubleheader with EKU

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team began the defense of its Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship with a loss to Eastern Kentucky on Sunday, but the Redhawks bounced back with a victory to split a doubleheader in Edwardsville, Illinois.

The Redhawks scored just a first-inning run in a 5-1 loss to the Colonels before busting loose for five runs in the first inning of 12-6 win in the nightcap.

The games were played at SIU Edwardsville's artificial turf field after last week's snow storm left Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau unplayable. Southeast, which ended the day at 5-7 overall and 1-1 in the OVC, concludes the three-game series at 1 p.m. today.

Southeast was shut out over the final eight innings of the opener but discovered its offense in the bottom of the first of Game 2, when it collected six hits and sent 10 batters to the plate off Colonels starter Luke McGhee.

The Redhawks had two bunt singles in the first inning, including one by leadoff batter Trevor Ezell that jump-started the frame.

Garrett Gandolfo and Andy Lennington followed with singles, with the latter scoring Ezell. Cleanup batter Ryan Rippee scored Gandolfo with a double off the wall, and Dalton Hewitt's safety-squeeze bunt scored Lennington from third for a 3-0 lead.

Brandon Boggetto reached on a walk, and Hunter Leeper bunted for a single that scored Rippee for a 4-0 lead. Clayton Evans capped the frame with a two-out single to increase the lead to 5-0.

Travis Hayes, the OVC co-pitcher of the year in 2014, yielded a leadoff home run to Kyle Nowlin in the second inning, but the Redhawks retaliated with four runs in the third. McGhee (2-1) did not retire a batter in the inning before being lifted. Evans and Lennington had RBI hits in the inning.

Hayes (3-1) pitched five innings before being lifted. He allowed seven hits, three runs -- all earned -- struck out seven and walked three.

Boggetto added a two-run home run in the sixth to increase the lead to 11-3.

Zach Moore, Alex Siddle, Brady Wright and Jacob Lawrence followed Hayes to the mound, allowing three runs over the final four innings. Lawrence was the most effective, striking out the side in the ninth.

The Redhawks and Colonels both finished with 13 hits in the game. Lennington, Rippee, Leeper and Evans all finished with two hits for Southeast.

Nowlin led EKU with four hits, while Doug Teegarden added three hits.

Southeast managed just five hits in the first game. Starter Logan Hershenow (1-3) allowed five hits over seven innings, and Aaron Ochsenbein struck out five Redhawks in two hitless frames.

Southeast starter Alex Winkelman (0-2) took the loss. He allowed seven hits and four runs -- all earned -- over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked five. Ryan Lenaburg and Greg Mosel pitched the final 2 2/3 innings.

After the Colonels took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Southeast answered in the bottom half on a sacrifice fly by Lennington that scored Ezell.

The score remained tied until the sixth, when Ben Fisher's sacrifice fly scored TJ Alas.

The Colonels chased Winkelman in a seventh that featured a two-run double by Mandy Alvarez, who had three of the Colonels' 10 hits. EKU added its final run in the eighth on a home run by Luke Wurzelbacher.