Southeast Missouri State baseball team will host first game today at Capaha

~ The southeast baseball team brings a 2-1 record into today's home opener

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team had a successful season-opening series on the road.

Today the Redhawks begin their home schedule with a 4 p.m. first pitch against Harris-Stowe State.

The contest against the NAIA program from St. Louis begins a six-game homestand for Southeast, which welcomes Ball State to Capaha Field for a three-game set Friday through Sunday.

"It'll be nice to play at home, try to get things rolling there," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said.

Southeast took two of three over the weekend at defending Sun Belt Conference co-champion Louisiana-Lafayette, which won an NCAA regional game last year.

The Redhawks won the first two games of the series before falling in Sunday's finale. They outscored ULL by a combined 15-7.

"I saw a lot of encouraging things. We can take a lot out of that series," Hogan said. "The guys played well all weekend against a very good club."

Southeast hit just .215 in the series -- that might partly be due to college baseball's new bat restrictions and the quality of ULL's pitching -- but Redhawks hurlers fashioned a 2.42 ERA and Southeast did not commit an error.

"There wasn't a pitcher we put out there who didn't do a good job, and we played excellent defense," Hogan said.

Harris-Stowe is 4-4. The Hornets lost their first four games but have bounced back with four straight wins

The Hornets went 29-24 last season, including 13-11 in the American Midwest Conference that tied them for third place in the seven-team league.

Harris-Stowe features three players from local high schools: junior outfielder Blake Dirnberger (Scott City), sophomore pitcher Drew Coleman (Jackson) and redshirt freshman pitcher Caleb Hosey (Jackson).

Southeast and Harris-Stowe also played last year, with the Redhawks rolling to a 10-2 victory in Cape Girardeau.

"We're looking forward to playing at home," Hogan said.