PDF Box ScoreNASHVILLE, Tenn. – Southeast Missouri baseball fell to Belmont University (27-26, 15-13 OVC) in game two of the three-game series Friday, 11-5.
Murray State defeated Morehead State in game two of their doubleheader Friday, 27-7, securing the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Regular Season Championship for Southeast Missouri. The Redhawks locked up the No. 1 seed in next week's OVC Tournament with Thursday's win over Belmont.
This is Southeast's second-straight OVC title and third overall (2002, 2014, 2015). The Redhawks are 32-21 on the season and 21-8 in OVC play.
With
Branden Boggetto on second and
Jason Blum on third,
Andy Lennington singled to center to drive in Blum and give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
A two-RBI base hit to left by Tyler Walsh in the bottom of the inning gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead. On the play, Tyler Fullerton was thrown out at third to end the inning.
A three-run second inning put the Redhawks back on top, 4-2. With two on and no out,
Ryan Rippee singled through the left side to plate
Hunter Leeper. After a walk to
Andy Lack loaded the bases,
Trevor Ezell hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring
Cole Ferguson and giving the lead back to Southeast. Blum drove in Rippee with a single just fair down the left field line to make it 4-2.
Belmont responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead, 6-4. An error by Lack in the inning allowed three runs to score on the play.
Two runs, one each on RBI base hits for Belmont in the fourth, made it 8-4 Bruins.
Southeast cut the lead to 8-5 in the seventh inning when Ezell scored on a double play.
Belmont plated a trio of runs all with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning to widen the lead to 11-5 on the Redhawks.
Southeast was outhit 13-8 in the game and each team committed an error.
Rippee was 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored Friday. Five other Redhawks all had one hit apiece.
Alex Winkelman (3-3) suffered the loss. WInkelman pitched six and two-thirds innings, allowing all 11 runs on 11 hits. Winkelman fanned six batters and walked four.
Alex Siddle pitched a third of an inning while
Garret Stockton pitched one complete inning in the eighth.
Five different Belmont hitters had two hits each Friday. Walsh had three RBI on the day while Matt Beaty had two. Alec Diamond, the leadoff hitter, scored three runs.
Patrick McGrath (8-4) earned the win. McGrath threw six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. McGrath threw four shutout innings against the Redhawks after the second inning. Matthew Kinney earned his sixth save. Kinney pitched three innings of nearly perfect baseball to close the game; Kinney struck out four batters of the eight he faced.
The Redhawks and Bruins will play the rubber game of the series Saturday at 1 p.m. It will be the regular season finale for both teams. The game can be viewed on the OVC Digital Network.Â
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