CHARLESTON, Ill. – Southeast Missouri (34-18, 16-7) split a doubleheader with Eastern Illinois (31-19, 11-12) Friday at Coaches Stadium. The Redhawks won game one, 6-4, before dropping the nightcap, 7-5.
Brett Graber,
Ty Stauss and
Ben Palmer each had two hits to lead SEMO in its game one victory.
The Redhawks used a three-run third inning to key the win.
Peyton Leeper walked, stole second and later scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by
Jevon Mason. Graber followed with a single through the left side and
Tyler Wilber added a two-RBI base hit to right center putting SEMO ahead, 3-0.
After EIU pulled within a run on a two-run home run by Dalton Doyle in the bottom of the fourth, the Redhawks tacked on two more runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to bury the Panthers.
Mason scored
Joel Vaske when he grounded out to first and Graber knocked in Palmer on a single up the middle in the seventh.
Lincoln Andrews then drove in Stauss on a single to right for the Redhawks other run in the eighth.
Both SEMO and EIU finished with nine hits.
Jason Rackers (5-3) pitched seven strong innings allowing just two runs on five hits. Rackers also struck out six and walked two as he matched his longest start of the season.
Blake Cisneros was credited with his first save of the year out of SEMO's bullpen. Cisneros recorded the final two outs of the contest.
In game two, SEMO jumped out to a five-run first inning lead. The Redhawks used six hits to fuel their big inning.
However, after that the Redhawk had just three hits the rest of the way and EIU was able to pull off its come-from-behind victory.
Stauss had another multiple hit game going 2-for-3 with a run scored to lead SEMO in game two.
Cisneros (4-1) suffered the loss in relief. He gave up one run on one hit, struck ou tone and walked one in 1.1 innings.
Due to Belmont winning its series against SIU Edwardsville, SEMO will end the regular-season second in the Ohio Valley Conference standings. The firstl three seeds for next week's OVC Tournament are set with Belmont as the #1, SEMO as the #2 and Morehead State as the #3.
SEMO and EIU play their regular-season finale at 10 a.m., CT Saturday.
