Southeast Missouri State baseball team whips EIU in series opener, 15-1

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team may not have done some of the little things the way coach Steve Bieser would have liked in the opener of a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series with struggling Eastern Illinois on Friday night.

But to Bieser's satisfaction, they did the big things quite well in a 15-1 romp of the Panthers.

More than offsetting three fielding errors and 15 stranded runners by the Redhawks -- twice not scoring with runners at second and third with no outs -- were 18 hits, three of which cleared the fence at Capaha Field.

Senior left fielder Garrett Gandolfo, batting No. 4 in the lineup, cleaned up in a big way with a grand slam and seven RBIs.

"That's a heck of week, seven RBIs," Bieser said. "In one night though, that's a special night. He's been locked in and really swinging the bat well."

Dan Holst and Branden Boggetto added solo home runs.

Southeast improved to 23-10 overall and to 13-2 in the OVC, while EIU dropped to 5-27 and 1-11 in the conference with its sixth straight loss.

Gandolfo's two-out blast in the sixth inning, sent well over the wall in right field, was his fourth hit of the game and came off EIU senior right-hander Jake Johansmeier after the Panthers had walked the bases loaded.

"It was just a hanging curveball he flipped in there and I put a good swing on it," said the left-handed batting Gandolfo, who has a 14-game hitting streak and is batting above .500 over his last 11 games.

The fact that Johansmeier was the fourth of six pitchers used by the Panthers left Bieser grimacing just a little less about opportunities his team failed to capitalize on.

The Redhawks scored six runs over the first two innings against EIU starter Michael McCormick, who was lifted after walking the first two batters in the bottom of the third.

"That was a goal coming out of the gate," Bieser said. "We said, 'Let's get into their bullpen early. And I think if you judge the game by that, we did an outstanding job because we got to see about every pitcher they had in the bullpen tonight. They had to show us those guys. It's good to see them once, and that way whenever you see them the second and third time it's not a true surprise, so we did a really good job of getting into the bullpen and making them use a lot of different arms tonight."

The six EIU pitchers combined to walk 10 batters and hit two Redhawks.

Southeast used three pitchers, but not by necessity.

Redhawks starter Joey Lucchesi (7-2), the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year, displayed sharp form, adding to his nation-leading 71 strikeouts by fanning eight Panthers over seven innings while walking just one. Three of the five hits he allowed were of the infield variety, and the only run scored against him was unearned.

The run came in the top of the first inning, when Joseph Duncan singled to right field and advanced on a fielding error on the play, then came around on a pair of groundouts.

The lead didn't last long.

Southeast's Trevor Ezell lined a single to left to open the bottom of the inning, moved to second on a one-out single by Boggetto and scored on Gandolfo's first hit of the night. McCormick recorded his only strikeout for the second out before hitting Chris Osborne. He then fell behind in the count to senior Hunter Leeper, batting No. 7 in the lineup.

"Earlier that inning he was throwing a lot of fastballs, and he got behind in the count 2-0 and I just kind of sat on a fastball, and I got that pitch and put a pretty good swing on it," Leeper said.

Leeper, who went 3-for-6, blasted the delivery off the base of the wall in center field to clear the bases and stake Lucchesi to a 4-1 lead.

"That's a game turner right there," Bieser said. "Whenever you feel you might be out of it on their side, and they might escape something there, and then all of a sudden Leeper comes up with a big blow and gives us the four runs in the first inning and gives our pitcher a chance to really settle in."

Lucchesi did settle in, while McCormick never did.

McCormick fell to 0-6 on the season, giving up seven hits, walking three and hitting two batters. All eight runs he surrendered were earned, raising his season ERA to 9.07.

He was hurt by a combination of bad luck, wildness and Redhawks bats in the second inning.

Lack opened the frame with a double when his harmless looking ground ball hit first base and bounded into the outfield. A walk to Ezell, who had just one hit but drew three walks, was followed by a one-out RBI single by Boggetto. Gandolfo then doubled to deep center to score Ezell for a 6-1 lead.

McCormick walked the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, Scott Mitchell and Lack, to open the third before giving way to Chase Thurston, who struck out six batters over 3 1/3 innings.

Southeast put its leadoff hitter on base in each of the first six innings, and Thurston escaped jams in the fourth and fifth innings with five of his strikeouts.

Holst opened the fifth inning with a home run to left-center field, and Boggetto followed with a double and Gandolfo singled and stole second base. Thurston escaped further damage by striking out the next three Redhawks. Despite leading 9-1 through five innings, Southeast stranded 10 runners.

"It's hard to take anything away from the club when they win 15-1," Bieser said. "We want to be better than we showed tonight. We've got to be better in those situations, when you have second and third with nobody out and you don't end up picking up a run. That's not good baseball, and we did that two different times tonight, and that's something we talked about in postgame and we've got to fix those things and make sure that doesn't happen down the stretch."

Boggetto finished 4 for 4 with three RBIs, raising his team-leading RBI total to 31 and giving the Redhawks' Nos. 3 and 4 hitters 10 RBIs on the game.

"That's the group of guys that are supposed to drive in the runs for you, and we've got some guys above them that are excellent at getting on base, Ezell and Holst, those guys are high on-base guys, and they did their job tonight in just driving those runs in," Bieser said.

The two teams will meet at 2 p.m. today in the second free tailgate of the season, with Jimmy Johns and Kohlfeld Distributing providing free food and beverage.

Southeast junior right-hander Clay Chandler (4-1) is scheduled to face EIU senior right-hander Matt Wivinis (0-6).