Sweep evades Southeast baseball team

~ The baseball TEAM won the first game 23-10 before losing the nightcap 12-11

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team opened its Ohio Valley Conference schedule in wild fashion Saturday in Morehead, Ky.

At the end of the day, the Redhawks had to settle for a doubleheader split as their eight-game winning streak came to an end in the nightcap.

Southeast routed host Morehead State 23-10 in the nine-inning opener then nearly rallied from a nine-run deficit before losing 12-11 in the seven-inning finale.

The second game, which saw Southeast trail 10-1 after one inning, ended when the Redhawks had a runner thrown out at the plate.

Southeast is 14-9 overall while the Eagles are 13-13. The squads are scheduled to close out their three-game series at noon today, although the forecast calls for rain.

Morehead's quirky Allen Field often lends itself to offensive shootouts since the park features short distances in center (350 feet) and right-center (305 feet), although left-center is nearly 400 feet.

The Redhawks pounded the ball to all parts of Allen Field in the opener as they had a season-high 23 hits to reach their season-high run total of 23.

Two local products enjoyed big first games. Junior Blake Slattery, a Central High School graduate, had five hits. Sophomore Kody Campbell from Oran had four hits, including two doubles.

The Redhawks collected four of the game's six home runs.

Juniors Louie Haseltine, Casey Jones and Brett Russell all homered, as did sophomore Kenton Parmley. It was the first Southeast home run for Russell, a junior college transfer.

Jones had three hits and four RBIs, while Parmley had three hits and three RBIs. Russell contributed two hits and three RBIs.

Haseltine had three RBIs. Juniors Michael Adamson and Tim Rupp added two hits each.

Senior Kyle Gumieny improved to 4-0. He fired four shutout innings as Southeast built an 8-0 lead before running into trouble.

Gumieny wound up allowing five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out one and walked one.

Three relievers finished off the victory, with only junior Brad LaBruyere emerging unscathed as the Central graduate retired all five batters he faced to end the contest.

In the nightcap, junior left-hander Logan Mahon never made it out of the first inning as the Eagles exploded for 10 runs to erase a 1-0 Southeast lead.

Mahon (2-1) was charged with eight runs on five hits. He also walked two and hit a batter.

Junior Nick Thomas settled down things after allowing the final two runs in the first. He held Morehead to just two runs over the next four innings as Southeast steadily chipped away.

A three-run sixth pulled Southeast within 12-10, after which freshman Shae Simmons from Scott City worked a scoreless bottom of the sixth.

With one out in the seventh, Rupp walked. With two outs, Parmley singled.

Adamson then ripped a ball into the right-center gap to score Rupp. Parmley also was waved around from first but two perfect relay throws nailed Parmley at the plate.

The Redhawks had 15 hits in the nightcap to finish the day with 38, along with five home runs and nine doubles.

Adamson had four hits and three RBIs in this contest, giving him six hits on the day to match Slattery.

Senior Jim Klocke had three hits and three RBIs, giving him five RBIs on the day. He now has an 11-game hitting streak.

Haseltine had three hits, including another home run. He delivered four RBIs to finish the day with seven RBIs. He leads Southeast with seven home runs and has homered in five consecutive games.

Parmley added two hits as he finished the day with five.

Morehead had 21 hits in the doubleheader, 16 less than Southeast.

Cameron Flynn had a huge day for the Eagles with three of their five homers and nine RBIs.