#22 Southern Illinois (17-1) vs. Southeast Missouri (10-8)

Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2021
First Pitch: 5 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Facility: Capaha Field (2,000)
Series: SIU leads, 56-30-1
Head Coaches: Andy Sawyers (185-131 overall; 98-104 at SEMO; 52-47 OVC). Lance Rhodes (28-7 overall; 28-7 at SIU).
Probable Starting Pitchers: TBA
Radio: SEMO ESPN 93.5 FM & 1220 AM (Erik Sean)
Live Stats: GoSoutheast.com

Redhawks Host #22 Southern Illinois 
Southeast Missouri (10-8) hosts longtime rival and #22 Southern Illinois (17-1) Tuesday in midweek action at Capaha Field. First pitch is set for 5 p.m., CT.

Follow the Redhawks
Fans can listen to Tuesday's game at SEMO ESPN 93.5 FM and 1220 AM. Erik Sean will call the action. Live stats can be accessed at GoSoutheast.com. Twitter updates provided @SEMObaseball.

Series History
The Redhawks and Salukis meet for the 88th time on the diamond this week. Southern Illinois leads the all-time series by a count of 56-30-1. SIU won eight of the last nine meetings between the teams and went 3-1 in its last four trips to Cape Girardeau.

Last Meeting
Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois faced each other in the final baseball game for both teams during the shortened 2020 campaign (due to COVID-19). SIU beat SEMO, 6-4, in Carbondale on Mar. 11. A day later, the NCAA canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments and conferences across the country changed plans for games in the months ahead. That decision affected championships in all winter and spring sports, including baseball.

Heating Up
The Redhawks have won eight of their last 11 games and are 8-3 in March. Southeast Missouri went 3-1 last week with a come-from-behind 8-6 win at Saint Louis (Mar. 16) and a 2-1 home Ohio Valley Conference series win over Austin Peay (Mar. 19-20). The 6-5 extra inning win over the Governors on Mar. 20 marked SEMO's 10th victory of the season.

First in the OVC
After clinching its second-straight Ohio Valley Conference series win, Southeast Missouri begins the week in a three-way tie for first in the conference. The Redhawks, Tennessee Tech and Murray State are at the top of the standings with identical 4-2 OVC records. SEMO had a season-long five-game winning streak end in a close 12-11 loss to Austin Peay in 12 innings.

Closing in on 100
Andy Sawyers is just two wins away from reaching 100 victories as Southeast Missouri's head coach. Sawyers, in his fifth year at the helm, is 98-104 overall at SEMO.

Extra, Extra
The Redhawks concluded their series against Austin Peay by splitting a pair of extra inning games at Capaha Field on Mar. 20. Southeast Missouri trailed, 5-1, in the bottom of the ninth inning when it scored four runs on four hits to send game one to extra innings. Connor Basler delivered a two-RBI single with two outs to tie the game. With runners on first and second and one out in the bottom of the 11th, Jevon Mason delivered a walk off single to left and Peyton Leeper scored the winning run. In game two, the Redhawks battled back from an 11-5 deficit by scoring three runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Basler again came up big, this time with a two-out three-RBI double to tie the game. APSU, however, scored one run in the top of the 12th to edge the Redhawks. SEMO has played six extra-inning games and is 4-2 in those contests this year. 

Midweek Games
Tuesday marks Southeast Missouri's second midweek tilt of the season. The Redhawks trailed the entire game before sending nine men to the plate and scoring four runs in the eighth inning to overpower Saint Louis (Mar. 16), 8-6, at the Billiken Sports Complex. SEMO is 14-23 all-time in midweek action with Andy Sawyers at the helm.

Rhodes Returns to Cape Girardeau
Former Southeast Missouri assistant Lance Rhodes returns to Cape Girardeau for the first time as Southern Illinois' head coach. Rhodes led turnarounds at SEMO and Missouri over a seven-year period before being named SIU's head coach on June 20, 2019. He arrived at SEMO in 2013 with Head Coach Steve Bieser. The Redhawks won three-straight Ohio Valley Conference titles from 2014-16 and won the OVC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2016. In Rhodes' final three years in Cape Girardeau, SEMO went 112-64 overall and 67-23 in the OVC. Three of the Redhawks five 35-plus win seasons all-time came with Rhodes on the coaching staff. He then spent three seasons under Bieser at Missouri, where the Tigers won at least 34 games each year from 2006-08.

Walk Off Wins
Southeast Missouri earned its second walk off win of the season when it rallied to beat Austin Peay, 6-5, in 11 innings on Mar. 20. Jevon Mason became the second Redhawk to walk off with a game-winning hit when he drove in Peyton Leeper on a one-out single to left. Leeper, a freshman, hit a sinking line drive base hit in the bottom of the 10th inning to give SEMO its other walk off win, a 4-3 victory over Illinois State on Mar. 5. The walk off hits are career firsts for Mason and Leeper.

Basler is Clutch
Nine-hole hitter Connor Basler sent both games of Southeast Missouri's doubleheader against Austin Peay (Mar. 20) to extra innings. Basler had a two-out, two-RBI single to cap a four-run ninth inning during game one and then ripped a two-out, three-RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning of game two. He had at least one RBI in each of his last four starts.

Back-to-Back Saves for Williams
Austin Williams picked up back-to-back saves in three of his relief appearances last week. Williams entered the game at Saint Louis (Mar. 16) in the eighth inning and recorded the final six outs to secure his first career save. Three days later, he finished with a career-high four strikeouts in two scoreless innings to preserve a 6-3 series-opening win over Austin Peay (Mar. 19).

Hitting Streak at Seven Games for Keck
Andrew Keck, who leads the Ohio Valley Conference with nine stolen bases, is on a seven-game hitting streak. Keck is second among Southeast Missouri's everyday starters with a .296 batting average. He posted multiple hits three times during his current hitting streak. Keck also opened the 2021 campaign on an eight-game hitting streak from Feb. 19-Mar. 5. That presently stands as the longest hitting streak of any Redhawk through 18 games.

Atop the OVC
Southeast Missouri leads the Ohio Valley Conference in stolen bases (31), sacrifice bunts (12) and wins (10). SEMO is one of four OVC schools with 10 wins this season. Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Morehead State are the others.

About Southern Illinois
Southern Illinois jumped to No. 22 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Poll. The Salukis are 17-1 overall as the leader of the Missouri Valley Conference. SIU is undefeated at 6-0 away from Carbondale. That mark includes a 4-0 record in true road games. The Salukis started their 2021 campaign at 14-0 before losing to Evansville on Mar. 14. Southeast Missouri is the fifth Ohio Valley Conference team SIU squares off against this year. The Salukis are 6-0 against the OVC with wins over Jacksonville State (1-0), Tennessee Tech (1-0), Eastern Illinois (1-0) and UT Martin (3-0).