CHARLESTON, Ill. – Down late, Southeast Missouri (17-13, 8-7) plated two runs on a Josh Haggerty base knock to go ahead on Eastern Illinois (6-25, 3-9) in the eighth. The Redhawks held on to win 7-6 and secure its first road Ohio Valley Conference series.
 
Joey Burris (1-1) pitched four relief innings, a career long, of scoreless, hitless baseball to secure his first Redhawk victory. He struck out a career-best four and walked two.
 
Redhawk starter Robert Beltran lasted only one and two-thirds innings, allowed five runs on six hits. Ryan Losman was first out of the pen and worked two and two-thirds scoreless innings with three strikeouts, both season bests.
 
The SEMO offense scattered 13 total hits to EIU's nine. Dan Holst and Danny Wright both registered a trio of hits. Haggerty finished with two hits and drove in two tying runs and the winning run in the game.
 
Michael Starcevich (1-4) allowed the winning run in the eighth to pick up the loss. He pitched the final three innings for EIU. Starter Chase Thurston pitched only two innings before being relieved by Brendon Allen. Allen worked four innings, allowing only a single hit to the Redhawks while fanning four hitters.
 
Joseph Duncan led off the bottom of the first with a line drive base hit to center. He was bunted to second and moved up to third on a fly out. Dougie Parks drove in Duncan with a perfectly placed base hit through the left side to go ahead 1-0 in the first.
 
With runners on the corners and one out in the top of the second, Haggerty recorded his first Redhawk RBI to plate Wright and tie the game.
 
The Panthers used three hits, a pair of Redhawk errors, and a costly wild pitch in the bottom of the second to take a 5-1 lead on Southeast.
 
SEMO responded with four runs of its own in the top of the third. Southeast opened the frame with three-straight base hits, the third of which was an RBI single by Tristen Gagan to drive in Chris Osborne. Brian Lees followed with a double to left to score another run. Gagan crossed the plate thanks to a wild pitch, cutting the lead to one. Kyle Bottger retied the game with a groundout that scored Lees, 5-5.
 
After a quiet two and a half innings of no scoring, EIU put something together in the sixth. The Panthers loaded the bases with a leadoff hit batsmen, a single, and a walk, prompting SEMO to go to the pen for Burris. The righty allowed a bases-loaded walk to put the Panthers back up 6-5 but proceeded to strike out the side to limit the damage.
 
In only his second start as a Redhawk, Haggerty came through again in the top of the eighth. After a successful sacrifice bunt to move runners into scoring positon by Bottger, Haggerty dove the first pitch of his at bat up the middle and into center to score both runners and put SEMO back on top 7-6.
 
Burris retired the final six straight Panthers to secure the victory and the series.
 
Jimmy Govern, Duncan, and Parks all had two hits for EIU while Parks drove in three to lead the team.
 
Southeast Missouri will begin another busy week of baseball Tuesday at Southern Illinois. First pitch from Carbondale will be at 5 p.m. It's then back home to Capaha for a three-game OVC series beginning Thursday against Jacksonville State.