EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Southeast Missouri baseball team (11-9, 4-4) dropped game two of its series at SIUE (12-10, 3-5) Saturday by a score of 15-10.
 
Down 11 going to the ninth, the Redhawks put up six runs to make a significant dent in the lead but it wasn't enough in the end.
 
The Redhawks scattered 10 hits with Tristen Gagan producing three of them. Gagan drove in four runs with a pair of doubles. Chris Osborne and Dan Holst also recorded multi-hit performances with two hits each. Osborne, who was on base four times, scored three runs.
 
Justin Murphy (2-2) suffered the loss. He pitched three and two-thirds innings in his start, allowed six runs, four earned, on eight hits. He struck out two and walked none. Including Murphy, Southeast used five pitchers in the game.
 
Nelson Martz (3-2) picked up the victory on the mound. He put together six innings, allowing three runs to the Redhawks on five hits. Michael Shereyk pitched two innings, one short of a save and allowed only one run on one hit.
 
Like game one of the series, SEMO held a 2-0 after the top of the first inning. Osborne drew a one-out walk and came around to score on a double that split the right center gap by Holst to put SEMO on the board. Gagan fired a laser line drive into left, allowing the quick-footed Holst to score.
 
The Cougars responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. Alec Skender got on second with a leadoff double then moved up to third on a groundout. A grounder off the fist of Jared McCunn was slow enough up the middle to plate Skender and cut the SEMO lead in half, 2-1.
 
A double play ball to second turned into a throwing error by Connor Basler, resulting in a two-out runner on second. Mario Tursi immediately followed with a base hit up the middle to plate the run, tying the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the second.
 
Osborne drew his second walk of the game to leadoff the third inning. After advancing to second on a groundout to first by Holst, he scored on a double to the warning track in right center off the bat of Gagan, putting the Redhawks back on top, 3-2.
 
SIUE hung a four spot on the board in the bottom of the inning to take its first lead of the weekend. The Cougars loaded the bases to begin the inning. Brock Weimer singled to right, plating two of the runners. On the play, the relay throw home by Gagan was wild, allowing runners to move up to second and third. Back-to-back squeeze bunts plated two more runs, extending the new lead to 6-3 on the Redhawks.
 
The Cougars added to the lead with a singular run in the bottom of the fifth. Tursi got a flare to fall in shallow center field, plating SIUE's seventh run. On the play, the centerfielder Holst threw the runner out with a strike to the plate for the second out of the inning.

A grand slam by Weimer in the sixth inning put the Cougars up a bunch, 11-3. 
 
SIUE put up four more runs, its third four-run inning, in the bottom of the seventh to widen the deficit to 15-3 heading to the eighth.
 
A fielding error by the left fielder in the top of the eighth, allowed Josh Haggerty to score from first, 15-4 Cougars.
 
The ninth inning began with SEMO loading the bases with one out. Aiden McMahan drew a bases-loaded walk for the first run of the inning. After a pitching change, Gagan doubled down the left field line to drive in two more. Following a pop out, Danny Wright doubled to the wall in left center, scoring a couple more. Kyle Bottger recorded his first RBI of the series on a single to right, making it a five-run game, 15-10. That would be the closest SEMO would get to SIUE in the contest.
 
Skender and Weimer each recorded four-hit games for the Cougars. Skender was on base five times and scored four runs while Weimer drove in six runs.
 
The rubber game of the series will be Sunday at 1 p.m. from Edwardsville.