Southeast Missouri State baseball team suffers 12-inning loss to Arkansas State

~ Southeast took its second one-run loss from Arkansas State

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team lost its sixth straight mid-week nonconference game Tuesday night.

Three have been blowouts and the other three one-run decisions.

Tuesday's affair at Capaha Field fit the latter description -- along with that of marathon.

Visiting Arkansas State scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the top of the 12th inning and beat the Redhawks 5-4.

Southeast Missouri State freshman Alex Siddle pitches to an Arkansas State batter Tuesday at Capaha Field. (WAYNE MCPHERSON ~ Special to Southeast Missourian)

"They're a good ballclub. We knew that coming in," ASU coach Tommy Raffo said. "It could have gone either way."

Southeast's first extra-inning game since early last season lasted 4 hours, 33 minutes, marking the Redhawks' longest outing in terms of time since they played 4:50 at Memphis in early March of 2008.

The Redhawks fell to 19-19 -- they are 11-7 and in fifth place in the 11-team Ohio Valley Conference -- while the Red Wolves improved to 20-17, including a 6-9 Sun Belt Conference mark that has them tied for seventh in the 10-team league.

ASU and Southeast also played a one-run game on April 2 in Jonesboro, Ark. The Redhawks rallied from early deficits of 6-2 and 8-4 to forge an 8-8 tie before the Red Wolves scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win 9-8.

Tuesday's matchup was perhaps more frustrating for the Redhawks because they managed only four hits -- three during the fourth inning when they scored all their runs.

"It's just disappointing to go 12 innings and we only get four hits," sophomore second baseman Jason Blum said. "They have a pretty good [pitching] staff. Not to discredit them, but we have to stick to our game plan."

Southeast coach Steve Bieser gave credit to the five pitchers ASU sent to the mound but, like Blum, lamented the Redhawks' approach at the plate.

"I really thought they dominated us on the mound," Bieser said. "Offensively, we just didn't have a good approach."

Southeast's pitching also stood out, unusual for the Redhawks in recent mid-week nonconference games.

The Redhawks, hampered by injuries on the mound, normally don't have many key hurlers available during the middle of the week, but that wasn't the case Tuesday.

"It's been as good as we've been in mid-week," Bieser said. "We knew we were sitting better this week. We had some guys that needed some work."

Both sides came up with key defensive plays, including a diving catch in center field by Southeast freshman Clayton Evans to end the sixth inning and preserve a 4-4 tie.

ASU already had scored twice in the frame and had runners on first and third when Evans made his gem.

The game eventually turned on a wild pitch -- Southeast's fourth of the night. Also key was a bad-hop single toward shortstop, something that occurred twice.

The first such play aided ASU's two-run sixth inning that forged the tie.

Dustin Jones drew a walk leading off the 12th inning against freshman Tyler Thomas -- Southeast's seventh pitcher of the game who took the loss -- and was sacrificed to second.

With two outs, Tanner Ring's routine bouncing ball suddenly took an extremely high hop. Freshman shortstop Branden Boggetto did all he could to prevent the ball from reaching the outfield, leaping to knock it down and keeping the go-ahead run at third base.

But Jones scored on a wild pitch -- one delivery before Thomas recorded the third out of the inning.

"It was a frustrating game," Blum said after the Redhawks went down in order in the bottom of the 12th.

Southeast was fortunate to have its four runs because three were unearned due to ASU's only error of the night.

Blum had the big blow of the Redhawks' four-run fourth inning, a two-RBI single as he extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Sophomore DH Ryan Barnes added an RBI single, and Boggetto drove in a run with a safety squeeze bunt.

Freshman Alex Siddle and senior closer Bobby Hurst were especially impressive for Southeast on the mound.

Siddle fired off 2 2/3 hitless innings early as he came in after ASU already led 2-0 on Ring's first collegiate homer, a two-run shot in the first inning.

Hurst, among Southeast's single-season save leaders with six, continued his dominant season with 2 2/3 scoreless innings before coming out after the 11th.

"They both did a great job," Bieser said.

Ring, a freshman, was the star of the game for the Red Wolves. Not only did he hit his first home run among his three hits -- ASU had 11 hits overall -- he was the winning pitcher with three dominant innings.

Ring (2-0) did not allow a hit and walked one while striking out five.

Southeast junior left fielder Derek Gibson, who entered the night as the OVC's leading hitter with a .380 average, saw his 17-game hitting streak end. He went 0 for 6 with three hard-hit balls, including being robbed on a sliding catch.

The game was also marred for Southeast by an injury to junior center fielder Cole Bieser, who landed awkwardly on his left wrist while attempting a diving catch in the fifth inning. He left the contest.

Steve Bieser said it was too early to guage the extent of his son's injury.