MARION, Ill. - #2 Southeast Missouri Baseball (32-24) picked up a huge victory in their opening game of the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship with a 9-4 win over #3 Morehead State (34-23) from Mtn. Dew Park on Thursday night.
The Redhawks bullpen stifled MSU's high-powered offense as LHP
Logan Katen (3-4) and RHP
Collin Wilma combined for five shutout innings. Katen pitched 2.0 innings, allowing no runs on two hits.
Wilma, a senior from Tinley Park, Ill., was dominant in his home state tonight as he pitched the final 3.0 innings, picking up his fourth save of the season. He did not allow a hit and punched out five Eagles in his outing.
Offensively, the Redhawks pounded out nine runs on 11 hits led by
Josh Cameron,
Shea McGahan, and
Keoni Coloma who all finished with two hits each.
SEMO fell behind in the top of the first inning as MSU loaded the bases against LHP
Haden Dow. A huge 6-4-3 double play allowed a run to score, but Dow settled in and kept the Eagles at just the single run.
Dow finished 4.0 innings in his start allowing just three earned runs on six hits.
The Redhawks offense immediately responded with a three-run inning. The first run of the game was manufactured perfectly as second baseman
Brooks Kettering led off the game with a double down the left field line.
Short stop
Ben Palmer moved him to third with a perfect sacrifice bunt, and left fielder
Ty Stauss drove in Kettering to tie the game.
After Cameonr's first hit of the game, a double to right field,
Caleb Corbin crushed his sixth home run of the season to give SEMO a 3-1 advantage after the opening frame.
Designated hitter
Keoni Coloma blasted his second homer of the season, leading off the second inning, to give the Redhawks a three-run lead after two innings.
MSU would cut the lead to just two as third baseman Isaias Guzman hit a solo home run to make it 4-2 Redhawks after the fourth.
Runs in the fourth and fifth from the Eagles would tie the game at four, but SEMO would blow the game open in the bottom of the sixth inning with a five-run inning.
A leadoff double from Stauss put him in scoring position for
Josh Cameron who went the opposite way for an RBI single to regain the lead, 5-4, for the Redhawks.
With a pair of runners on, catcher
Shea McGahan single to left field to score Coloma and
Bryce Cannon to give the Redhawks a 7-4 lead.
With McGahan on second, center fielder
Ian Riley crushed an opposite field home run, a two-run shot, to give SEMO a 9-4 lead heading into the seventh inning.
The SEMO bullpen did the rest as the Redhawks blanked the Eagles over the four innings to advance to the semifinal round.
#2 Southeast Missouri will meet #4 Southern Indiana in the winner's bracket tomorrow at 12 p.m., CT. from Marion, Ill.
