CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri baseball improved to 4-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play with a 5-1 victory in game over Morehead State (12-5, 3-1 OVC) Friday afternoon.

The Redhawks are now 11-8 overall in 2016.

"Any OVC win is a big win," Steve Bieser began. "I thought we responded pretty well behind Joey Lucchesi again. Everyone feels very comfortable when Joey goes out on the mound and they are confident we are going to win, and we did just enough to win today. We played some sloppy defense but Hunter Leeper came up with some big hits for us and those were the difference in the ball game."

Leeper hit two two-run home runs to drive in four of Southeast's five run on the day. Leeper's home runs were responsible for two of the three Redhawk hits Friday.

"Hunter's a gamer and he's a streaky guy. When he gets hot, he gets really hot. He's on a good streak and he's been hitting really good pitching lately. He's locked in and swinging the bat really well. The thing about Hunter is when he's not swinging the bat well, he's still finding ways to get on base and do the little things really well."

Lucchesi improved to 4-1 with Friday's win. Lucchesi pitched eight innings, allowing just one run on three hits. He fanned 10 Eagle hitters and walked three on 132 pitches.

"I think it was really impressive for Joey to work around our four errors and it's even more impressive because I didn't think he had his best stuff again today. He is able to make the big pitches when he needs to. You can tell a guy is a good pitcher when he doesn't have his best stuff but he is still able to get out of situations and control a game. I say 'he didn't pitch well' when he only gave up one run and three hits but I've seen him better and I know he can throw better than what he showed today and we're going keep working on that until we see everything look really good."

Morehead State starter Luke Humphreys (3-1) was handed his first loss of the season. Humphreys pitched five innings, allowing three runs on only one hit. He struck out one hitter and walked six.

The Redhawks touched home in the bottom of the fourth. Branden Boggetto drew a leadoff walk then advanced all the way to third when Humphreys' pickoff attempt was off the mark and squirted away. Garrett Gandolfo flew out to deep center field, allowing Boggetto to tag up and score, 1-0 Redhawks.

Leeper's first home run of the game came in the fifth inning with two out. Brian Lees was on base after taking a leadoff walk. The Redhawks led 3-0 after five innings.

Morehead State's Will Schneider hit a tracer of a home run to left off Lucchesi in the top of the sixth. It was the first home run given up by Lucchesi this season.

Leeper's second homer came in the seventh inning, again with Lees on base and two out, expanding the Southeast lead to 5-1.

Justin Murphy made his 10^th appearance in the top of the ninth to close the game.

Lees owned Southeast's third hit of the game, a double in the seventh.

The Eagles were also held to three hits but they also forced the Redhawks to make four errors Friday.

Southeast Missouri and Morehead State face off in game two of the series Saturday at 2 p.m. from Capaha Field. Clay Chandler (2-0) will face off against Matt Anderson (4-0) on the mound.