Southeast Missouri (7-14) at Missouri State (11-6)
 
Dates: Tuesday March 20, 2018
First Pitch: 3 p.m., CT
Site:  Springfield, Mo.
Facility: Hammons Field (8,000)
Series: Missouri State leads, 64-40
Last Meeting: SEMO 5, MSU 4 (Mar. 15, 2017 / Cape Girardeau, MO.)
Head Coaches: Andy Sawyers (121-66 overall; 34-39 at SEMO; 18-15 OVC). Keith Guttin (1,230-765 overall; same at MSU)

Southeast Missouri Probable Starting Pitcher
Logan Winder, RHP

Media Coverage
Radio: ESPN 92.9 FM (Erik Sean)
Live Stats: MissouriStateBears.com
 
Redhawks Hit the Road
Southeast Missouri (5-13, 2-1) heads west to Missouri State (11-6) Tuesday.  First pitch is set for 3 p.m., CT, at Hammons Field.
 
Follow the Redhawks
Fans can listen to Tuesday's game on the radio at ESPN 92.9 FM. Erik Sean will call the action. Live stats are available at MissouriStateBears.com. Twitter updates provided @SEMObaseball.
 
Series History
Missouri State leads the all-time series against Southeast 64-40. The Redhawks won 5-4 against the Bears in 2017 at Capaha Park. Southeast looks for its first win at Hammons Field since 2011. 
 
Strong OVC Start
The Redhawks opened Ohio Valley Conference play with back-to-back 2-1 series wins over Morehead State (Mar. 9-10) and UT Martin (Mar. 16-18). The Redhawks are 4-2 in league play.
 
OVC Openers
Head Coach Andy Sawyers picked up his first career win in an Ohio Valley Conference opener when Southeast beat Morehead State, 5-4, on Mar. 9. The Redhawks improved to 16-11 all-time in OVC openers. 
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Looking for First Midweek Win
Southeast is 0-5 in midweek games this season. The Redhawks began the year with a midweek 7-6 loss to Arkansas State back in February. Southeast dropped one-run games at Arkansas State (7-6, Feb. 20), Memphis (3-2, Feb. 27) and Central Arkansas (5-4, Mar. 14), and fell to Southern Illinois (5-0, Mar. 6) and Central Arkansas (7-3, Mar. 13). 
 
Dirden Homers
Justin Dirden hit the game-winning home run in the top of the ninth inning to give Southeast its series-clinching win over UT Martin (Mar.28). With two outs recorded, Dirden homered to center field bringing Devon Wilson around the bases with him. Dirden scored earlier in the game when Wade Strauss homered in the second inning. 
 
Adidas OVC Player of the Week
Tristen Gagan was recognized by the OVC after he hit .522 (12-for-23) in five games last week. Gagan had two doubles, three runs scored, a triple and a home run, 10 RBI, .870 slugging percentage and .542 on-base percentage. The senior barely missed hitting for the cycle against UT Martin on Saturday (Mar. 17).
 
Over the Fences 
The Redhawks have recorded 17 home runs this season. Wade Stauss leads Southeast with five homers. A total of seven Redhawks have recorded a home run already. Tennessee Tech leads the conference with 40 home runs in 2018. 

New Season-High
The Redhawks established a new season high with 20 hits in their 17-1 victory over UT Martin (Mar. 17). Tristen Gagan (4), Wade Stauss (4), Peyton Faulkner (3) and Trevor Ezell (3) combined for 14 of those hits. It marked Southeast's eigth double-digit hit game this year.  
 
Mr. Clutch 
Trevor Ezell has delivered in the clutch several times this 2018 season. Ezell drove in multiple runs in either the eighth or ninth inning on three occasions. At Arkansas State (Feb. 20), he tied the game with a two-out, two-RBI double in the top of the ninth inning. Ezell then tied the Redhawks series finale against Bowling Green (Feb. 25) with a one-out, two-RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth, a game which Southeast came back to win, 9-7. Most recently, Ezell hit a two-out, two-RBI single to grab the Redhawks a 2-1 advantage in the top of the eighth inning at Memphis (Feb. 27).
 
Second in the OVC
Trevor Ezell ranks second in the Ohio Valley Conference with a .455 batting average. Ezell is one of five players in the conference hitting over .400. He also ranks among the OVC's top five leaders in hits (1st, 30), stolen bases (t5th, 4), runs batted in (t6th, 17), slugging percentage (8th, .606), on-base percentage (7th, .493), and total bases (6th, 40).
 
Final Countdown
Trevor Ezell needs just one more hit to reach 200 in his career. Ezell enters the week with 199 hits in 146 career games. He is also two RBI away from 100 in his career.
 
Urhahn Remains Hot
Chase Urhahn is on an eight-game hitting streak. The streak started against Morehead State (Mar. 9) with four hits and continued through last weekend at UT Martin. Before this streak started, Urhahn had another hitting streak come to an end the game before. 
 
National Rankings
Tristen Gagan ranks sixth in the nation in runs batted in (29), while Justin Dirden is tied for 31st (25). The duo is also ranked t39th in doubles (8). Trevor Ezell ranks seventh in the nation in hits (35).
 
Double-Digit Hits
Southeast notched 11 or more hits in its last three games. The Redhawks finished with 12 hits in game one and 11 hits in game three of their series against UT Martin. Southeast racked up a season-high 20 hits in game two of that series. Southeast outhit its opponent 10 times this year.