COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For the first time since the 2013 season, the Southeast Missouri baseball team (31-15, 20-6 OVC) has dropped more than one Ohio Valley Conference series. The Redhawks fell to Tennessee Tech (25-19, 12-11 OVC) Saturday 4-3, dropping the series.
 
Southeast dropped its first series at Austin Peay earlier in the season.
 
The Redhawks were held to just four hits in the game, two of which were home runs by Garrett Gandolfo and Chris Osborne.
 
Clay Chandler (4-3) suffered the loss. Chandler pitched six innings, allowed four runs (three earned) on 10 hits. He struck out six and walked just one. Adam Pennington pitched two innings of shutout baseball Saturday, allowing just two hits. He struck out three.
 
Jake Usher (2-0) earned the win for Tennessee Tech. Usher worked five complete innings, allowed two runs on just three hits, struck out five, and walked five. Freshman Ethan Roberts picked up his first save after pitching four innings in relief.
 
Osborne started the second inning off with a base on balls. He moved into scoring position on a passed ball, tagged up and went to third on a flyout to right, and scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch by Usher. The Redhawks led 1-0 after one and a half innings.
 
Tennessee Tech found a lead on Southeast in the third inning. Jake Farr hit a two-run home run to right field to put the Golden Eagles on top. Following a single and a double, Trevor Putzig drove in the third run of the inning on a groundout to second base. TTU led Southeast 3-1 after three innings.
 
The Redhawks' first hit of the game came in the top of the fourth inning when Osborne sent his 12^th home run over the wall in right field, narrowing the TTU lead to a run, 3-2.
 
A throwing error by Andy Lack, the Redhawks' third baseman, allowed Kevin Strohchein to score and widen the lead to 4-2 in the fifth inning.
 
Gandolfo sent a a towering home run to right center on the first pitch of the eighth inning, cutting the lead to 4-3.
 
For the second game in a row, Strohchein was a perfect 4-for-4. He scored two runs and knocked a double for Tennessee Tech. Josh Pankratz, Putzig, and Farr each had two hits in the contest.
 
The Redhawks will look to salvage a game in the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.