SIU Edwardsville (5-13, 1-5 OVC) at Southeast Missouri (7-15, 4-2 OVC)
 
Dates: Friday-Sunday March 23-25, 2018
First Pitch: Fri.-1 p.m., Sat.- 2 p.m., Sun.-1 p.m.
Site: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Facility: Capaha Field
Series: SEMO leads 16-6
Last Meeting: SEMO 5, SIUE 7 (Mar. 26, 2017 / Edwardsville, Ill.)
Head Coaches: Andy Sawyers (123-68 overall; 36-41 at SEMO; 20-16 OVC). Sean Lyons (28-42 overall; same at SIUE).
 
Southeast Probable Starters:
Friday- Christian Vick, RHP
Saturday- Logan Spalt, RHP
Sunday- Carlos Vega, RHP
 
Media Coverage:
Radio: SEMO ESPN 92.9FM (Erik Sean and Jess Bolen)
Video: OVC Digital Network
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Southeast Missouri Game Notes

Redhawks Return to Capaha Field
Southeast Missouri (7-15, 4-2) returns to Ohio Valley Conference action when it welcomes SIU Edwardsville (5-13, 1-5) for a three-game series this weekend. First pitch of the series is 1 p.m., CT, Friday.
 
Follow the Redhawks
Fans can listen to this weekend's games on the radio at ESPN 92.9 FM. Erik Sean will call the action alongside Jess Bolen. Video can be accessed live online at the OVC Digital Network. Live stats are available at GoSoutheast.com. Twitter updates provided @SEMObaseball.
 
Series History
Southeast leads its all-time series against SIUE by a count of 16-6. The Redhawks have won six of their last eight games against the Cougars. Southeast lost 5-7 in the last matchup on Mar. 26, 2017 against SIUE.
 
Strong OVC Start
The Redhawks opened Ohio Valley Conference play with a 2-1 series win over Morehead State (Mar. 9-10) in Cape Girardeau. Southeast claimed its 17th series victory all-time during the opening weekend of league action. It was the 16th time the Redhawks posted a series win against the Eagles since the teams first starting playing in 1992. The Redhawks continued with a series win over the Skyhawks of UT Martin (Mar. 16-18) in Martin, Tenn.. Southeast recorded a season-high 17-1 win on Saturday (Mar. 17) with 20 hits and 15 RBI.
 
Free Tailgate
Friday's game will feature the third free tailgate out of the seven plotted out for the 2018 season. The free tailgate is sponsored by both Kohlfeld Distributing and First Missouri State Bank. The fish fry will start at 1 p.m. with food served at 2 p.m.
 
Midweek Games 
Southeast is currently 0-6 in midweek games this season. The Redhawks dropped three  one-run affairs 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), Central Arkansas (7-3, Mar. 13) and Missouri State (5-10, Mar. 20).
 
New Pitching
Two of the three pitchers predicted for this weekend's series have not pitched against SIUE before this weekend. Carlos Vega is the only pitcher to have experience against the Cougars roster which features only one freshman infielder and two freshmen pitchers.  
 
New Season-High
The Redhawks established a new season high with 15 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. The 8-7 win on Sunday (Mar. 18) marked Southeast's ninth double-digit hit game this year.
 
Spalt Leads Pitchers
Logan Spalt leads Southeast with five starts on the mound this season. The Redhawks are 2-3 with Spalt as a starter. Ashton Holyfield follows close behind with four starts. 
 
Winder Gets Career-High
Junior right-handed pitcher Logan Winder got the green light for Tuesday's matchup at Missouri State. During his 3.2 innings pitched, Winder had eight strikeouts to double his previous season-high.
 
Vega Dominates
In his third appearance this season, reliever Carlos Vega simply dominated en route to leading Southeast to its first win of the season against Bowling Green (Feb. 24). Vega allowed only one hit in 3.1 shutout innings and retired 10 of the last 11 hitters he faced. He sat the Falcons down in order in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to nail down his first win of the season. Vega also matched a career-high six strikeouts in that game.
 
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 percent- age. The senior barely missed hitting for the cycle against UT Martin on Saturday (Mar. 17). 
 
Mr. Clutch 
Trevor Ezell has delivered in the clutch several times this 2018 season. Ezell goes into the weekend series with 200 hits and 100 RBI in his career. He has 36 hits and 22 RBI alone this 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). 
 
Multiple Positions
Danny Wright has started at four different positions through 22 games this season. Wright started three games at third base, one at short, one at designated hitter and ten in center field. 
 
Lone Starter
Tristen Gagan has started all 22 games at first base. He is the only player on the 2018 squad to not play at the designated hitter spot or move positions. Connor Basler has started 21 games at shortstop and Justin Dirden started 21 contests in right field.
 
Home Run Count
Southeast has 18 home runs and ranks fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference in that category this season. The Redhawks hit a home run in 12 games during the 2018 campaign. Wade Stauss leads the team with five.
 
Urhahn Remains Hot
Chase Urhahn is on nine-game hitting streak. The streak started against Morehead State (Mar. 9) with four hits and continued through this past midweek game at Missouri State. Before this streak started, Urhahn had another hitting streak come to an end the game before. This is the longest current streak on the team.
 
Streaking
Along with Chase Urhahn's nine-game hitting streak, Trevor Ezell and Justin Dirden have their own streak going. Both Ezell and Dirden have a four-game hitting streak. Ezell had a 12-game streak before it ended against Southern Illinois (Mar. 6). He went 0-for-3 that game. Peyton Faulkner has a streak of 13 reached base safely. Ezell and Urhahn also have a nine game streak in reached safely as well. 
 
Vega Goes Back-to-Back
Carlos Vega is predicted to start in Sunday's series finale against SIUE. This will be his second consecutive Sunday start. He worked 4.2 innings in Southeast's 8-7 win over UT Martin (Mar. 18). 
 
Hit Batsmen
Southeast is second in the Ohio Valley Conference in hit by pitch. Redhawk hitters have been hit by a pitch a total of 29 times this season. Danny Wright and Peyton Faulkner have been plunked a team-high five times this year. Morehead State leads the league in that category with 30 hit batsmen.
 
Leading the OVC
Tristen Gagan leads the Ohio Valley Conference in fielding percentage at 1.000 and 159 putouts. He also leads the league in runs batted in with 29. Justin Dirden is close behind and tied for second with 26 RBI. Connor Basler leads the OVC with four sacrifice bunts this season. Carlos Vega ranks among league leaders with seven games finished in 2018. 
 
On Deck
Southeast continues the weekend series against SIUE on Saturday and Sunday (Mar. 24-25). The Redhawks then host Harris-Stowe Tuesday (Mar. 27) before heading to Clarksville, Tennessee to take on Austin Peay Mar. 29-31.