Games 1-3
Southeast Missouri (0-0) at
Dallas Baptist (0-0)
Dates: Friday, Feb. 16 – Sunday, Feb. 18
Times: 3 p.m. | 2 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Dallas, Texas
Facility: Horner Ballpark
Series: DBU leads 4-2 | Last meeting: 2022
Head Coaches: SEMO;
Andy Sawyers (181-170, Eighth Season) | DBU; Dan Heefner (607-311, 16
th season)
Follow the Redhawks
Radio: 93.5 FM & 1220 AM (Erik Sean)
Watch: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Ststs: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Twitter: @SEMOBaseball
Game Notes (PDF)
Redhawks Commence 2024 Season Friday at Dallas Baptist
Southeast Missouri Baseball (0-0) will open its 55-game schedule on Friday, Feb. 16, for the first game of the series with Conference-USA member, Dallas Baptist (0-0). The Patriots and Redhawks will play a three-game set, continuing Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 17-18, respectively. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m., 2 p.m., and 1 p.m. over the duration of the weekend.
Series History
SEMO and DBU will meet for the seventh, eighth, and ninth times over the weekend and the first time since 2022. Dallas Baptist maintains a 4-2 series advantage over the Redhawks. The last time these two met, SEMO won the series 2-1 including back-to-back extra inning victories at Horner Ballpark.
Head Coach
Head Coach
Andy Sawyers enters his eighth season at the helm of SEMO Baseball in 2024. Sawyers has been a head coach for 10 seasons, compiling an overall record of 268-197. Entering his eighth year at SEMO, he has accumulated an overall record of 181-170 and has been 95-73 in Ohio Valley Conference play during that time. During his time, Coach Sawyers' teams have won the OVC regular season title (2021), OVC Tournament titles (2021 & 2022), and has advanced to the NCAA Baseball Tournament two times ('21 *& '22) with Sawyers at the helm.
Preseason Poll
Southeast Missouri Baseball was picked third in the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Predicted Order of Finish voted on by the league's head coaches and communicators.
The Redhawks were selected third with 127 points, trailing Morehead State (148) and Little Rock (155) in the 2024 poll. MSU received eight first place votes while Little Rock received 12 first place votes.
Outfielder
Josh Cameron and LHP
Haden Dow landed on the 2024 All-OVC Preseason Team after their performances from a season ago.
Cameron, a senior from Pflugerville, Texas, finished the season with a .304 batting average, 66 hits, 52 runs, 16 home runs, and 51 RBIs. The outfielder was also ranked 39th in the nation by D1baseball.com amongst all division-one outfielders.
LHP
Haden Dow was selected to the team after serving as the Redhawks' Sunday starter for the majority of the 2023 season. A native of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, Dow finished the year with an overall record of 4-3 with a 4.55 earned-run-average. Dow registered 63.1 innings pitched, recording 51 strikeouts.
The Schedule
A 55-game schedule with 28 games at Capaha Field is in store for Southeast Missouri this upcoming 2024 season.
SEMO opens the year with a three-game series at reigning Conference USA Champion Dallas Baptist (Feb. 16-18), one of two 2023 NCAA Tournament teams on the docket. DBU went 47-16 overall and 25-5 in C-USA play en route to making the Stillwater, Oklahoma NCAA Regional a year ago.
The Redhawks host former Ohio Valley Conference member Murray State (Feb. 20) in their home-opener on the front end of a home-and-home series. SEMO will return the trip to Murray, Kentucky on Apr. 16.
SEMO's other matchups prior to the start of conference action include a pair of four-game home series with St. Thomas (Feb. 23-25) and Toledo (Mar. 1-3), a three-game set against Western Kentucky (Mar. 16-17), a road series at Marshall (Mar. 8-10) and midweek bouts at Missouri (Feb. 27), vs. Middle Tennessee (Mar. 5), at Evansville (Mar. 13) and at Austin Peay (Mar. 19).
The Redhawks begin their 27-game OVC schedule at Eastern Illinois (Mar. 22-24), which won three-straight elimination games to claim last year's OVC Tournament crown. EIU advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.
SEMO's other conference road opponents include Little Rock (Apr. 5-7), Tennessee Tech (Apr. 19-21), Lindenwood (May 3-5) and first-year OVC member Western Illinois (May 10-12).
SIU Edwardsville (Mar. 28-30) comes to Cape Girardeau for the Redhawks first home OVC series, while Southern Indiana (Apr. 12-14), Morehead State (Apr. 26-28) and UT Martin (May 16-18) are SEMO's other home league foes.
The rest of the 2024 schedule features home-and-home midweek series against Missouri State (Mar. 26, Apr. 2) and longtime rival Southern Illinois (Apr. 9, Apr. 23), and another midweek game vs. Evansville (Apr. 30).
The Squad
The 2024 Baseball team will feature a lot of new faces around the dugout and on the diamond for the Redhawks. The squad features 31 players, including 11 newcomers making their first appearance(s) in a SEMO uniform.
Outfielder
Josh Cameron & LHP
Haden Dow return to the squad as the lone-Redhawks featured on the All-OVC Preseason Team. Cameron led the team last season with 16 home runs, while Dow recorded 51 strikeouts over 63.1 innings pitched.
Returning on the infield will be seniors
Peyton Leeper,
Ben Palmer,
Chance Resetich,
Ty Stauss,
Nolan Ackerman,
Gunnar Doyle, and sophomore
Cole Warehime.
New to the infield will feature Iowa Central Community College transfer,
Caleb Corbin, freshman
Brooks Kettering, and Johnson County CC transfer
Shea McGahan behind-the-plate,
Newcomers
Gavin Baldwin and
Keoni Coloma are listed as 'Utility' players.
SEMO will have very little returning in the outfield as
Josh Cameron is the only returner from a season ago. Junior College transfers
Michael Mugan and
Bryce Cannon will help patrol the outfield, along with Dallas Baptist-transfer,
Ian Riley, will be in the outfield in 2024.
The Redhawks will return several arms from a season ago, headlined by
Haden Dow and RHP
Payton Lawrence. RHP
Esteban Hernandez, one of the hardest throwers on the pitching staff, will return for his senior campaign as well.
Collin Wilma will return to the mound for the Redhawks in 2024 after doing most of his work out of the bullpen last season, along with
Tommy Windt who will be making his return to the mound after missing all of 2023 with an injury.
Right-handed pitcher (and newcomer)
Brian Strange will look to make an impact for the Redhawks pitching staff after transferring in from Mineral Area College. Fellow newcomers,
Alex Hayes, and
Sam Heyman will make their SEMO debuts in 2024. The left-hander and right-hander transferred in from Madison & Chabot College, respectively.
Working out of the bullpen, and returning from a season ago, will be LHP
Logan Katen, LHP
Ethan Osborne, RHP
Fischer Rausch, and RHP
Anthony Klein, all who saw action in 2023.
The sophomore duo of RHPs
Gavin Johnston and
Eddie White will help anchor a strong backend of the bullpen, and will be headlined by SEMO's all-time saves leader,
Kyle Miller. Miller, who finished 2023 with six saves, became the all-time leader in saves with 17 a season ago.
New to Coaching Staff
Assistant coach Tommy Gleason will join Coach Sawyers' staff in 2024 for the first season of his SEMO career. A native of Hopkins, Minn., Gleason played four seasons at Luther College from 2016-2019 where he graduated with a degree in Management.
Prior to joining the Redhawks in 2024, Gleason spent 2023 at Southeastern Community College as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator under Justin Schulte. There he worked with the outfielders and the hitters.
During the 2023 season, Southeastern CC went to the NJCAA World Series for just the 2nd time in program history and were national runners-up in the final game. Gleason was a part of a Region 11 championship, a Great Plains District Championship, and the most wins in Southeastern CC program history with 49.
Southeastern CC was second in the nation in runs scored, third in the nation in doubles, third in the nation in hits, 21st in batting average, 10th in On-Base percentage, and first in hit-by-pitches. They led the nation in fielding percentage, had two National Gold Glove winners, the National Defensive Player of the Year, and 10 players from the team moved on to Division-I programs.
Around the League
Morehead State and Little rock were the two teams picked above Southeast Missouri in the preseason poll. Morehead State (148) and Little Rock (155) received eight first place votes and 12 first place votes, respectively.
UT Martin (106), Eastern Illinois (100), Tennessee Tech (93), SIUE (67), Southern Indiana (52), Lindenwood (31), and Western Illinois (20) rounded out the rest of the preseason team rankings. Morehead State's Ryley Preece (OF) and Jackson Wells (RHP) of Little Rock were voted as the OVC Preseason Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
Scouting the Opponent
Dallas Baptist
The Patriots enter the 2024 campaign fresh off a 47-win season in 2023, including their ninth consecutive NCAA Regional. DBU will enter the season with six pitchers who saw action on the mound, including one of the nation's top arms in Ryan Johnson. Johnson finished with an 8-4 record with a 4.43 ERA. He tallied 116 strikeouts which ranked him 16
th in the country.
The Patriots return four started on the infield who accounted for 49 home runs, 180 RBI, and 44 stolen bases a year ago, headlined by Luke Heefner, Grant Jay, Tom Poole, and Miguel Santos. Heefner and Santos will make up the shortstop and second base tandem, respectively, while Jay returns to the catcher position.
Nathan Humphreys headlines the Patriots' outfield returning as the reigning Conference USA Player of the Year. Grant Jay and Ethan Mann will roam the outfield grass as well for the Patriots in 2024.
Humphreys ranked in the top 10 in CUSA in six categories, including batting average (.351), on-base percentage (.450), OPS (1.094), runs (58), slugging percentage (.644), and stolen bases (19) a season ago.
DBU Is led by Head Coach Dan Heefner who enters his 17
th season as the Patriots head coach. Heefner has an overall record of 607-311 during his time at DBU and is coming off a 25-5 CUSA record In the Patriots' first year In the conference.
