CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.- Southeast Missouri (3-0) swept Western Michigan (0-3) in the 2019 baseball opening season weekend. SEMO won 5-1, 8-4, and 9-8.
 
The weekend series was affected by the weather and ended up with three games finishing on Sunday. Game one started on Saturday (Feb. 16) with a first pitch at 3 p.m., CT after the snow-covered field pushed the game farther back than anticipated. 
 
The game was postponed and scheduled to be finished first thing Sunday morning after the darkness overtook the field and the lack of lights made it nearly impossible to see the ball. 
 
A total of eight members of the 2019 SEMO baseball squad got their first Division I start this weekend with Brett Gonzalez and Tyler Wilber leading the pack with starts in all three games. Along with Gonzales and Wilber, Austin Blazevic, Turner Fritts, Keegan Meyn, Dylan Dodd, Andrew Keck and Noah Niznik all got starts on the weekend. 
 
Gonzalez went 5-for-11 on the weekend with three RBI on four singles and a triple. Gonzalez was the only freshman to start all three games.
 
Wilber went 4-for-9 on the weekend with three walks. Wilber scored twice on the day after reaching base safely on base hits.
 
SEMO defeated WMU 5-1 in the first game, with the final five outs coming on Sunday morning. 
 
Dodd got the season opener start for the Redhawks and recorded eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work. He allowed only one run while on the mound. 
 
Alex Nielsen recorded the first hit of the 2019 season with a double to left center in the fifth inning. He finished the first game after going 2-for-2 with another double in the bottom of the seventh. Nielsen had a pair of doubles, singles and was hit by the pitch twice in the three games. 
 
Danny Wright was the first Redhawk to score after reaching base on a bunt. He was pushed in on a fly ball by Brett Gonzalez. Wright started all three games, went 5-for-11 with two RBI. He had four base hits and one double on the series. 
 
In game two, the Redhawks defeated the Broncos 8-4 with a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning.
 
Noah Niznik got his first collegiate start. Niznik, a St. Louis native, recorded four strikeouts and allowed three hits in six full innings of work. 
 
SEMO took the lead early in game two, only to exchange leads in the seventh inning after WMU posted four runs in the top of the inning. 
 
The Redhawks returned in the bottom of the eighth and posted five runs on five hits when they batted through the entire line up. 
 
Keck got his first collegiate hit in his first start when he scored two on a base hit up the middle in the bottom of the eighth. He would finish 1-for-4 on the day and caught for former high school teammate Niznik.
 
Later in the inning, Connor Basler hit a double down the left line and advanced on the throw to home. Basler scored three on the play and went two-for-three in game two with three RBI. 
 
In the final game of the weekend, SEMO defeated WMU 9-8 in a game that changed leads four times.  
 
Daniel Bergtholdt got the start on the mound and would allow eight hits in 5.1 innings of work. The Broncos took a 2-0 lead before the Redhawks had a turn to get the bats rolling in the final game. 
 
The Redhawks put up three runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead. A triple down the right line scored Wilber who hit a single to left field two batters before.
 
Blazevic scores both Gonzalez and Nielsen on a double that he tried to stretch out to give SEMO a 3-2 lead at the end of the second.
 
The Broncos returned with a three-run home run and took the lead 5-3 in the top of the third. Southeast would tie the game back up 5-5 in the next half inning that started with a leadoff solo home run by Peyton Faulkner. 
 
The Redhawks allowed 25 hits and notched 23 strikeouts in the three games. Collectively, the Redhawks had 31 hits and scored in 11 of the 25 innings of play. 
 
SEMO will return to Capaha Field on Tuesday, February 19, to host Harris-Stowe.