Southeast Missouri (26-10) at Saint Louis (16-21)
Series Information
Dates: Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2016
First Pitch: 6 p.m.
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
Stadium: Billiken Sports Center
Series: Southeast leads 19-18
Head Coaches: Steve Bieser (125-86, Fourth Season); Darin Hendrickson (283-211-1, Ninth Season)
 
Media Information
Radio: SEMO ESPN 92.9 FM / Erik Sean, Jess Bolen | Listen Live
Live Video: n/a
Live Stats: SLUBillikens.com
Twitter Updates: @SEMObaseball
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri | Saint Louis
 
Probable Starting Pitchers
Tuesday: RHP Jacob Lawrence (2-1) vs. RHP Jackson Wark (0-1)
 
Leading Off
• Southeast Missouri baseball (26-10) opens a four-game road swing at Saint Louis (16-21) Tuesday evening.
• RHP Jacob Lawrence will make his sixth start of the season at Saint Louis on Tuesday.
• The Redhawks went 4-0 last week with a road win over Arkansas State and a three-game sweep over Eastern Illinois.
• Southeast Missouri leads the all-time series over Saint Louis by a game, 19-18.
• The Redhawks have won the last three meetings with the Billikens.
• First-place Southeast Missouri will travel to second-place Jacksonville State this weekend for a three-game OVC series. Both teams have two losses.
• Garrett Gandolfo earned adidas OVC Player of the Week honors for his efforts last week hitting .474 with 13 RBI.
• The Redhawks are 13-1 at Capaha Field this season; 9-0 in home OVC games.
• Alex Siddle tied Southeast's all-time appearance record this weekend.
• The Redhawks are ranked 56th in the latest RPI rankings.
• Garrett Gandolfo extended his hitting streak to 16 games this weekend.
 
Redhawks Rundown
Show Me Showdown
The Southeast Missouri baseball team (26-10) opens a four-game road swing at Saint Louis University (16-21) Tuesday evening. The Redhawks and Billikens will throw the first pitch at 6 p.m. from the Billiken Sports Center in St. Louis. Jacob Lawrence will make his sixth start on the mound Tuesday.
 
Follow the Redhawks
Tuesday evening's game will be broadcast on SEMO ESPN 92.9 FM. Erik Sean will provide play-by-play on the broadcast. Sean will be joined by Jess Bolen who will provide analysis. Fans can download the SEMO ESPN app to listen to live broadcasts of Redhawks baseball all season long. Live stats will be available on SLUBillikens.com. Live Twitter updates are available on the official Twitter page of Southeast Missouri baseball, @SEMObaseball.
 
Let's Recap
The Redhawks went 4-0 last week with wins over Arkansas State and a sweep of OVC opponent Eastern Illinois. The Redhawks completed the sweep of Arkansas State on Tuesday, the first sweep of the home-and-home series since 2011, with a 13-8 victory. The Redhawks returned home for a three-game set with Eastern Illinois over the weekend. Southeast won game one of the series 15-1 over the Panthers behind Garrett Gandolfo's five-hit, seven-RBI performance. Eastern Illinois led the Redhawks 11-9 going to the bottom of the ninth inning but Chris Osborne once again played hero with a three-run walk-off home run to lift Southeast to a 12-11 victory and a series win. The Redhawk bats were hot again in game three, completing the sweep with a 20-7 win. Southeast has now swept five OVC series this season.
 
What's Ahead
The league-leading Redhawks will travel to second-place Jacksonville State this weekend for a three-game OVC series. Both teams feature two losses in conference play. The Gamecocks began OVC play with sweeps of SIUE, Austin Peay, and Eastern Illinois but have dropped a game to Murray State and Tennessee Tech in their last two series. Following the series at Jacksonville State, the Redhawks will return home for a six-game homestand.
 
Series History
Southeast Missouri holds a one-game lead in the all-time series with Saint Louis, 19-18. The Redhawks have won the last three meetings with the Billikens including sweeping last season's home-and-home series. 2015 was the first time the Redhawks have defeated the Billikens twice in a season since 2005. The Redhawks won in St. Louis 9-7 in 2015 and 6-2 in 2014.

Scouting the Billikens
The Billikens enter Tuesday's game looking to snap a seven-game losing skid. While they are 16-21 on the season, SLU is 7-2 in Atlantic 10 play. At the Billiken Sports Center, SLU is a very respectable 11-3 this season. As a team, SLU is hitting .277 but have blasted 34 home runs. The squad currently holds a 4.90 ERA. Tuesday's starter Jackson Wark has pitched in eight games with one start this season. Wark has worked a total of 12.2 innings and has allowed 25 runs in that span. Saint Louis is led by Josh Bunselmeyer, who leads the team in batting average (.317), on-base percentage (.416) and slugging percentage (.656). He is second in the A-10 with 10 HR and leads the conference with 40 RBIs. Lead off hitter Michael Bozarth leads the Atlantic 10 with 18 stolen bases (29th in NCAA).

Gandolfo Earns adidas® OVC Player of the Week
Garrett Gandolfo was named the adidas® OVC Player of the Week this week. Gandolfo, a senior from San Diego, California, hit .474 (9-for-19) last week, helping the Redhawks to a 4-0 week. He slugged three home runs, one of which was a grand slam, two doubles, and drove in 13 total runs. He himself touched home seven times in four games. He slugged 1.053 with a .565 on base percentage. He began the week going 2-for-4 with a solo home run at Arkansas State. He opened the weekend series against Eastern Illinois going 5-for-6 with seven runs batted in with a double and a grand slam. Gandolfo had a two-RBI double in the first inning of game two and launched a two-run jack in his final at bat in game three to extend his hitting streak to 16 games.
 
There's No Place Like Capaha
In Southeast's 14 games at Capaha Field this season, they are 13-1 in those contests. In OVC play, Southeast is a perfect 9-0 at Capaha. The Redhawks out score their opponents 130-60, outhit them 163-114, and out slug them with 21 home runs to opponents' five. On the mound, Joey Lucchesi has a 0.32 ERA in 28 innings of work with 32 strikeouts and a 4-0 record at home.
 
The Top Staff in the League
The Redhawks pitching staff leads the league in a six categories including ERA (3.63), hits allowed per nine innings (8.66), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.85), strikeouts per nine innings (9.5), and WHIP (1.33), and walks allowed per nine innings (3.32). The Redhawks' 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings ranks sixth nationally.
 
LuKKhesi Ranks Third Nationally in Strikeouts
Southeast's ace Joey Lucchesi currently ranks third nationally in strikeouts with 79. He ranks only to Clarke Schmidt (South Carolina) and Mitchell White (Santa Clara) who each have 80. Lucchesi needs to get to 87 strikeouts to crack the single-season top-ten list in the category. His 93 from last season ranks fifth on the list. He is also on pace to crack the career strikeouts list in only two seasons. He has 172 in his Redhawk career and needs five more to crack the list. He will be only the second to crack the list in two seasons. Ryan Spille's (1998-99) 215 strikeouts ranks second.
 
Siddle Ties Appearance Record
Senior right-handed pitcher Alex Siddle tied Southeast Missouri's all-time appearance record on Friday with his 76th career appearance. His next appearance will officially break the record held by Jason Swearingen (1995-98). Siddle's 76 appearances ranks 38th among active Division I players in pitching appearances.
 
The Latest RPI Ranking
In this week's NCAA RPI rankings, Southeast Missouri ranks 56th out of 300 Division I teams. Four OVC programs appear in the top 100. Behind Southeast is Austin Peay (69), Jacksonville State (70), and Morehead State (91). The rest of the over rank 204 and higher. D1Baseball.com ranks the Redhawks 56th also.
 
Osborne Hits for the Cycle
Junior outfielder Chris Osborne became the first Southeast Missouri baseball player to hit for the cycle since 2003 on Sunday at Austin Peay. Osborne singled in the second inning, homered in the fifth, tripled in the eighth, and doubled in the ninth to complete the cycle. Denver Stuckey was the last Southeast player to hit for the cycle on May 4, 2003 at UT Martin.
 
Key Two-Out Hitting
The Redhawk offense has capitalized on two-out situations this season. In all, the Redhawks have scored 302 runs on the season, 282 of which were driven in. With two out, Southeast has recorded 116 runs batted in this season, 41% of the Redhawks' total run production. The Redhawks have 132 two-out hits this season and hit .310 with two down in an inning.
 
Going Streaking
Garrett Gandolfo is riding a team-best 16-game hitting streak this season. Gandolfo's hitting streak is the longest since Derek Gibson rattled off a 28-game hitting streak in 2014. Ryan Rippee has strung together an 11-game on base streak.