COLUMBIA, Mo. – Southeast Missouri baseball (10-7) extended its winning streak to four games Tuesday evening with a 7-2 victory over in-state Southeastern Conference foe Missouri (13-6). Jacob Lawrence (1-1) pitched eight innings in his first win of the season.
 
Lawrence's one win a season ago came in a start at Missouri in which he pitched seven and two-third innings and struck out seven. He topped that performance Tuesday evening by going eight innings, allowing only one run on six hits, and striking out 11 Tiger hitters. Lawrence threw 131 pitches in the game.
 
"Jacob was fantastic tonight, especially considering the strong crosswind and rain he had to deal with throughout the night. He was able to keep their hitters off balance all night," Steve Bieser said.
 
The Redhawks found their offense Tuesday, putting up 15 total hits and driving in all seven runs. Every hitter in the Redhawk lineup had at least one hit in the contest, led by Hunter Leeper with a trio of hits and three RBI.
 
Bieser added, "Our offense picked a good night to put it all together. It was nice to see every hitter in the lineup pick up a hit but better to see the quality of the at bats we were taking. That was a big reason we were able to put up seven runs on a solid pitching staff."
 
Ryan Rippee knocked a one-out solo home run to right-center field in the top of the second inning to put the Redhawks on the board, 1-0. Brian Lees followed Rippee's home run with a base hit up the middle then advanced on a groundout by Chris Caffrey. Leeper drove in Lees with a single to right field, expanding the Redhawk lead to 2-0.
 
Back-to-back one out doubles by Zach Lavy and Trey Harris put the Tigers on the board in the bottom of the second inning, cutting Southeast's lead to 2-1.
 
The Redhawks fired up their two-out run production in the top of the fifth inning. Caffrey led off with a single to center and advanced to second on a groundout by Leeper. After a popout by Daniel Costello, Trevor Ezell lined a base hit to right, scoring Caffrey from second, and widening the Redhawk lead to 3-1.
 
For the third straight inning, the Redhawks led off the sixth with a base hit. Consecutive hits by Garrett Gandolfo, Rippee, and Lees drove in the Redhawks first run of the inning. Leeper singled through the four hole with one out to score Rippee and extend the lead to 5-1.
 
The seventh inning was the first and only inning of the game in which the Redhawks did not record a hit. Southeast had 11 hits prior to that inning.
 
Southeast pushed two more runs across in the top of the eighth inning. Leeper drove in his third run of the night with two out in the inning, scoring Rippee from first on a double drilled down the left field line. Leeper then scored on a double by Costello, strengthening the lead to 7-1 on the Tigers.
 
Missouri plated one run in the bottom of the ninth inning off Brady Wright, bringing the final score to 7-2.
 
Ezell, Gandolfo, Rippee, and Lees all had two hits in the game behind Leeper's three. Rippee scored three of the Redhawks seven runs.
 
Jake Ring, Lavy, and Harris each put up two hits for Missouri in the game.
 
Missouri starter Michael Plassmeyer (1-2) picked up the loss. Plassmeyer pitched four and two-thirds innings Tuesday. He gave up three runs on eight hits. In all, Missouri used five pitchers in Tuesday's contest.
 
The Redhawks and Tigers will face off in the second of the two-game series Wednesday at 4 p.m.