Southeast Missouri State baseball wraps up historic season with NCAA regional loss to Louisiana Tech

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Southeast Missouri State baseball team huddled in shallow right at Dudy Noble Field on Saturday evening.

Those few short moments following the Redhawks' 9-4 loss to Louisiana Tech in an elimination game of the Starkville NCAA Regional weren't long enough for coach Steve Bieser to share his feelings with his players, particularly the amount of appreciation he has for the effort they put in to help the team reach new heights.

"They're setting a standard in our program that it's committed to excellence," Bieser said. "I think we had a lot of guys that bought into that the last several years and really just gave it their all. We've got to be realistic -- we're still short just a little bit. We've got to get those pieces in our program.

"The hope is that with the success that we've had over the last few years of being dominant in the conference, coming in and making a regional, we can start attracting those players that give us that depth that we need."

Southeast Missouri State's Trevor Ezell dives into first base during an NCAA Regional elimination game played against Louisiana Tech in Starkville, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 4, 2016.Mary Alice Truitt ~ Columbus Dispatch

It was the lack of depth that doomed Southeast in the double-elimination regional. The Redhawks, who had to play five and win four games in a three-day span last weekend to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, ran out of steam in their first NCAA regional since 2002.

Southeast lost shortstop and RBI leader Branden Boggetto, who had started every game at the position the last two seasons, to an injury during the first game of the regional and had been without first baseman Ryan Rippee with a dislocated knee cap for several weeks. The bullpen and starters Clay Chandler and Robert Beltran, junior college transfers who weren't acclimated to the grind of a Division I baseball season, had to battle their way through the OVC tournament.

It all finally caught up to the Redhawks this weekend. They finished their season with a school-record 39 wins and 21 losses.

"The second half of the season, it was done on pure guts, and that's a testament to our seniors," Bieser said. "When we go down two players on the position side, it weakened our defense and [our defensive play] was probably the biggest obstacle that we had to overcome.

"We've got guys that I feel like can step in and swing it with any team in the country, but you've still got to play good defense. You've still got to have a little bit more depth on the pitching staff, and those are the things that we're working towards. We want to make sure we form a deeper club. But again, it's the tone and it's everything that our upperclassmen have set. We've just got to continue to build on it."

Southeast Missouri State outfielder Chris Osborne throws a ball during an NCAA Regional elimination game played against Louisiana Tech in Starkville, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 4, 2016.Mary Alice Truitt ~ Columbus Dispatch

Southeast set the tone early in its game against third-seeded Louisiana Tech. Trevor Ezell singled, Chris Osborne drew a walk and then Dan Holst hit a three-run home run to right to put the Redhawks up 3-0 with one out in the top of the first.

"After that first inning, I kind of had a thought run through my head that it's going to be a long day," Louisiana Tech starting pitcher Casey Sutton said. "Their coach put a really good approach against me. Like [former Southeast pitching coach and Louisiana Tech coach John] Goff said, they hit me better than any team has all year. All them lefties stacked against me kind of took my better pitch away, which is a cutter, forced me to dig deep and throw my changeup more, which I hadn't done. Luckily it worked out for us in the end."

Southeast, which stranded 12 runners in the game, couldn't muster another run off Sutton (8-1) until the eighth inning despite some hard-hit balls. He allowed four earned runs on 10 hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

After Holst's home run, the Redhawks only had one runner advance past second until the eighth.

"I think he just did a good job the whole game mixing his pitches," said Ezell, who went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. "He was throwing fastball, cutter, changeup and a slider and just mixing up his speeds a little bit to keep us off balance. We were out in front some, so it was just hard for us. After the first inning, we didn't really string anything together."

The Redhawks got three consecutive one-out singles to load the bases for Ezell in the bottom of the eighth before Sutton was relieved by Casey Sullivan, who issued a bases-loaded walk for the final run before a strikeout and a groundout stranded the bases loaded.

"We always thought we were still in the game. Couple hits there in the eighth, and we're right back in it," senior shortstop Andy Lack said. "That's just baseball, and that's how it went."

Louisiana Tech (41-19), which moves on to play in another eliminated game Sunday, scored a run in the first and third innings to cut Southeast's lead to 3-2.

Brent Diaz led off the bottom of the decisive six-run fourth with a no-doubt home run down the left-field line off reliever Adam Pennington to tie it.

Southeast Missouri State's Jacob Lawrence celebrates in the dugout during an NCAA Regional elimination game played against Louisiana Tech in Starkville, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 4, 2016.Mary Alice Truitt ~ Columbus Dispatch

Pennington allowed a double and a single before leadoff hitter Bryce Stark bunted toward first base. No throw was made, allowing him to reach and the go-ahead run to score. Pennington, who sustained his first pitching loss and dropped to 4-1, hit a batter to load the bases with one out before he was relieved by Jake Busiek.

Busiek struck out the next batter before Cody Daigle blasted a 3-1 pitch to left center for a grand slam that put the Redhawks in an 8-3 deficit.

Southeast Missouri's Trevor Ezell and Dan Holst celebrate a score during the game played against LA Tech in Starkville on Saturday afternoon. /Mary Alice Truitt

Chandler Hall hit a solo shot to left off Busiek in the bottom of the sixth for the Bulldogs' final run.

"The biggest problem we had was keeping the ball in the park," Bieser said. "They've got some guys that did exactly what they should. We made some bad pitches, and they really got on top of the ball and drove it out of the park. And we had a tough time controlling that huge inning that they had, but we knew what type of offense we were dealing with, and we knew what type of game we were getting ready to lock into."

Regardless of their 0-2 showing at the regional, Bieser and the Redhawks have raised the bar for the program in just his fourth year at the helm.

"As a fifth-year senior here now, I feel like it's all been a process to where we've come now," Lack said. "I feel like the people that just came in and the people that are soon to come in know that we're a winning program and we expect to win and not just come in timid. I do believe that we've set a tone in this program -- Coach Bieser himself has, too. It's going to be exciting to watch what is to come."

Southeast Missouri State shortstop Andy Lack scoops up a ball during an NCAA Regional elimination game played against Louisiana Tech in Starkville, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 4, 2016.Mary Alice Truitt ~ Columbus Dispatch

Lack is one of 11 seniors who played their final game at Southeast and one of five that were part of all three OVC regular-season titles the last three years along with Boggetto, Scott Mitchell, Brady Wright and Alex Siddle. Joey Lucchesi, Jacob Lawrence, Garrett Gandolfo, Hunter Leeper, Rippee and Busiek also concluded their Redhawk careers.

"Just that group of seniors, that group of guys really set the groundwork and it's going to be hard to carry over what they've brought to the program," Ezell said, "but we're going to do our best as underclassmen to keep it going.

"We hope to get the same results as this year, just to move on a little farther. It's our first year to make a regional in over 10 years. We came up short last year. Really we just want to get back to this point. It'll be something that we're used to. It won't seem as foreign. We'll just be more prepared."