CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri Baseball (1-4) dropped game one against St. Thomas (2-3) on Friday afternoon by a final score of 5-3 at Capaha Field.
RHP
Collin Wilma started the afternoon on the mound for the Redhawks in his longest outing of the season. Wilma pitched 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on six hits. He registered a strikeout over 27 batters.
The Redhawks offense was paced by
Chance Resetich. Resetich finished the day 2-for-5 with a double as SEMO recorded just five hits on the afternoon. Short stop
Ben Palmer had the only home run of the day from either side, a third inning solo shot over the left field fence. Palmer finished 1-for-4 with a RBI.
RHP
Gavin Johnston made a nice appearance out of the bullpen in Friday's contest. Johnston pitched the final 1.2 innings and allowed just one hit. He struckout two batters over seven faced.
St. Thomas jumped out of the gate with the game's first two runs. A single by St. Thomas' Mikey Gottschalk put the first runner on-base against Wilma.
A bunt single by Ben Vujovich put two runners on with just one out. The Tommies' first baseman Max Nyrop doubled down the right field line to bring in Gottschalk for the first two runs of the game.
Two more runs by St. Thomas in the third inning would give the Tommies a four-run lead before the Redhawks responded in the home half.
Leading off the third inning, Palmer blasted a solo shot over the left field wall off St. Thomas' Walker Retz (1-0).
Second baseman
Brooks Kettering drew a walk two batters later and stole second base to get himself into scoring position.
Michael Mugan flied out to right field to get Kettering to third.
Josh Cameron stepped up with two outs and flared a nice single to center field to score Kettering and the Redhawks cut the four-run deficit to just two. After the third inning, St. Thomas led 4-2.
A defensive battle the rest of the way, both teams would combine for just two runs the rest of the way and not before the eighth inning.
Nyrop homered to center field with one out in the eighth inning off reliever
Ethan Osborne for St. Thomas' fifth run of the ball game.
Back-to-back hits by
Chance Resetich and
Bryce Cannon in the Redhawks' eighth inning. Resetich doubled, Cannon singled, and the Redhawks ahd runners on the corners with just one out.
An RBI groundout by
Ty Stauss plated Resetich to get SEMO to within two and trailed 5-3 entering the final inning.
SEMO would load the bases in the ninth inning after a walk to
Peyton Leeper, followed by an error on St. Thomas' second baseman Tanner Recchio which allowed Kettering to reach base.
Mugan would advance the runners with a ground out to the pitcher to put Redhawks on second and third with two outs.
Josh Cameron would hit next and would be plunked by the pitch of Carl Cano to load the bases.
The Redhawks would strand the bases loaded in the final inning with a pop out to the catcher as St. Thomas held on for a 5-3 victory.
Wilma (0-1) was given the loss in the contest.
The Redhawks and Tommies will play games two and three in the series tomorrow beginning at 12 p.m., CT. Game two is slated to begin at 4 p.m. at Capaha Field.
