Tennessee Tech reliever quiets Southeast Missouri State baseball team's bats

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team got its first look at Tennessee Tech freshman pitcher Travis Moths on Saturday afternoon and the Redhawks were impressed and frustrated by everything they saw.

Moths, a 6-foot-1 righty, entered in relief with one out and a pair of runners on in the bottom of the fourth inning and promptly recorded a strikeout to end the inning.

He cruised through the Redhawks' lineup over the next five innings and his teammates provided plenty of run support as the Golden Eagles defeated Southeast 11-5 at Capaha Field.

The Ohio Valley Conference-leading Redhawks (30-16, 20-6 OVC) can clinch a share of their second consecutive regular-season title with a win over TTU (21-23, 12-11 OVC) today.

"Their guy was phenomenal today," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "That changeup that he was throwing, we kept swinging at it right out of the hand and he was able to really take a lot of speed off of that changeup. That was just something that we couldn't make an adjustment to. Our hitters kept chasing it and it had some movement they said and it was running off the plate. He was just very effective. He competed well and he was on."

Southeast Missouri State's Travis Hayes watches as coach Steve Bieser walks to the mound to make a pitching change in the fifth inning against Tennessee Tech Saturday, May 2, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Glenn Landberg)

Southeast held a 5-2 lead when Moths relieved starter Evan Frailex, who allowed four earned runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and four walks.

Tech held a 1-0 lead after one inning when a leadoff walk came around to score after a fielding error at third and a sacrifice fly.

The Redhawks went up 2-1 in the bottom of the second. First baseman Ryan Rippee drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt and scored when catcher Scott Mitchell reached on an infield single and then TTU second baseman Jake Farr made an errant throw. Shortstop Branden Boggetto doubled home Mitchell.

Southeast starter Travis Hayes gave up a home run to TTU left fielder Tyler Brazelton on the first pitch of the next inning to tie it at 2.

Jason Blum doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning and the Redhawks added three more on three hits in the fourth before Moths entered.

Fans takes in the game between Southeast Missouri State and Tennessee Tech Saturday, May 2, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Glenn Landberg)

"We just had real good at-bats starting out and the guy that came in to relieve just shut us down," Blum said. "That's going to happen every now and then in baseball. You don't want it to, but it's inevitable sometimes. We've just got to come out tomorrow and have that same fight we had through those first few innings."

Hayes recorded a strikeout to start the fifth before the Golden Eagles strung together four consecutive hits, along with an error when left fielder Peter Williams overran a ball, to tie the game at 5-5.

"That fifth inning was pretty unfortunate because he made a lot of really good pitches that ended up finding holes," Mitchell said. "He had a couple guys 0-2 and he made good two-strike pitches that Tennessee Tech had good approaches and found ways to put a bat on the ball and they just found holes."

The Redhawks were retired in order in the fifth and sixth and Hayes was knocked out of the game in the top of the sixth.

He gave up a two-run home run to first baseman Chase Chambers to make it 7-5 and allowed a single up the middle off the bat of third baseman Trevor Putzig before being relieved by freshman Wesley Pyles with one out.

Putzig stole second and scored on a base hit to make it 8-5 and Alex Siddle took over on the mound.

The Redhawks erased the base runner Siddle inherited when Mitchell threw him out stealing second. Siddle gave up a single and a double before intentionally walking shortstop and No. 3 hitter Dylan Bosheers to load the bases. He issued another walk to the next batter to plate a run and give the Golden Eagles a 9-5 lead.

"He's had some difficulty coming in in the middle of an inning and needs to start a clean inning, but as a reliever you've got to be able to come in and stop the bleeding in those situations and he just wasn't very good coming in in that middle of the inning," Bieser said of Siddle. "They battled. He gave it his best effort. He just didn't have his best stuff today and the results were not very good."

TTU added a run in each the seventh and eighth innings for the final score.

Moths, who improved to 3-2, allowed just two hits in his 5 1/3 scoreless innings. He struck out nine batters and walked only two.

Hayes (7-5) took the loss on the mound. The senior allowed eight runs, five earned, on nine hits in his final start at Capaha Field. He walked one and had a pair of strikeouts.

The series finale is set for 1 p.m. today.

"Some days you get beat. I think that they hit the ball better than us, they pitched the ball better than us and we just got beat," Bieser said. "I didn't like the way that we couldn't put anything together in the last half of the game as far as getting hits and trying to put some pressure on them, but I think they just flat-out beat us. They were the better team than we were today."