Southeast Missouri State baseball team wins series against Morehead State

There was only one Ohio Valley Conference baseball team that was able to win a series against OVC champion Southeast Missouri State last season.

The Redhawks avenged their lone conference series loss to Morehead State with a 14-6 victory Monday in Morehead, Kentucky, that sealed their first series win over the Eagles in four years.

Southeast improved to 9-8 overall and 4-2 in the OVC, while the Eagles dropped to 10-6 and 3-3.

"I thought offensively our guys did a really good job this series, and that's the difference in the series -- the way we attacked our at-bats -- and we played good defense, too. Having those two things is always a positive," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "We made pitches when we had to make them, but probably the only downside to this series is probably the number of walks that we issued and the free bases. Other than that, you've got to be pleased when you can go into Morehead against a good team and win the series."

The Redhawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but it didn't last long.

Southeast starter Joey Lucchesi issued a couple of walks before giving up a two-out, three-run home run to Robby Spencer to tie the game.

The Redhawks added four runs in the second, knocking Eagles starter Matt Anderson out of the game after allowing six earned runs in just 1 1/3 innings. Second baseman Jason Blum doubled to score two runs, and first baseman Ryan Rippee drove in two more with a base hit to center.

Southeast never relinquished the lead but never kept the Eagles at a comfortable distance until the final three innings.

"It's something that didn't work too well for us this series," Bieser said with a laugh. "It seemed like every time we would get a lead we were letting it back up, and that's something that we've got to address. What good teams do, when they strike and score some runs, what they're capable of doing is shutting down the next inning and trying to keep that momentum in our favor. But we had a lot of momentum swings, and give the guys credit because every time it seemed to swing against us we were able to bounce back and get it going back our way."

MSU plated two runs in the third to cut it to 7-5. Meanwhile the Redhawks didn't record a hit and had just two baserunners through the sixth inning off Eagles reliever Blake Smith, who entered to start the third.

"He's the type of guy that he's a soft tosser and he really keeps the ball at the bottom of the zone, and he was getting that call just below the knees and that's what really kind of kept us off stride," Bieser said about Smith. "When we had two strikes, we had to protect down low, and when you're getting that call you can constantly position that ball the way he positioned it at the bottom of the strike zone that makes it very tough to get the ball elevated and hit the ball in the line. He just did a really good job with the command and the location of his pitches. Our guys battled and had good at-bats. They just couldn't capitalize, and I think the zone obviously was in his favor and he took advantage of it."

Lucchesi was relieved by Ryan Lenaburg with two outs in the bottom of the sixth after he gave up a single, balked and hit a batter.

Lenaburg walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, then threw a wild pitch that scored an Eagles run to make it a one-run game at 7-6.

Lenaburg walked one more batter before Alex Siddle replaced him on the mound. Siddle got Spencer to line out to third to end the inning.

Siddle walked just one batter and allowed one hit over his 2 1/3 innings of work.

"In that situation we needed Alex Siddle to lock in and really start making some good pitches," Bieser said. "He was the difference in today's game just by being able to take the game over there towards the end."

Southeast recorded three hits in the top of the seventh -- the Redhawks first since the second inning -- and plated three runs to push the lead to 10-6.

The Redhawks scored four more in the top of the ninth on a two-run shot by center fielder Clayton Evans and a two-run double by designated hitter Garrett Gandolfo.

Lucchesi improved to 2-0, allowing six runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings. He recorded seven strikeouts and walked three batters. Anderson (1-1) was tabbed with the loss for the Eagles.

Southeast is scheduled to face Arkansas at 6:35 p.m. today and 3:05 p.m. Wednesday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Redhawks return home to host UT Martin in a three-game series starting Friday at Capaha Field. It will be the first time the Redhawks have played in Cape Girardeau since their season-opening series Feb. 13 and 14

"We're excited to play an SEC opponent, especially at Arkansas. It's a great venue to play at, and I know our guys will be excited," Bieser said. "Always the concern you have is that we played three games in less than two days already, we've got to travel 13 hours to get there, and then we've got to play that night. So that's always a concern for the guys. You don't want guys getting tired and push the envelope there and guys end up pulling a muscle because of the fatigue that's set in, so we're going to have to be creative in that two-game series and just play our best baseball and hopefully we can go there and be very competitive."