MARION, Ill. - #2 Southeast Missouri Baseball (34-25) defeated #3 Morehead State (37-24) to win the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship presented by SERVPRO on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 9-6 from Mtn. Dew Park. 

The championship victory is the third-in-the-last-four years for Head Coach Andy Sawyers and marks the sixth time in SEMO Baseball program history that the Redhawks have claimed the tournament title. 
 
The Redhawks, who fell in the first game against MSU, got a stellar start on the mound by RHP Sam Heyman (5-3) who pitched 6.0 innings allowing just two runs on five hits with five strikeouts. Heyman recorded scoreless innings from the third to the seventh stifling MSU's offense. 
 
On offense, SEMO pounded out eight hits and scored nine runs in the championship game as short stop Ben Palmer used a 2-for-5 day with three RBIs. 
 
Deisgnated Hitter Ty Stauss, who left Saturday's game one with an apparent injury, bounced back in game two and drove in two runs with one swing of the bat as his RBI single in the second inning put the Redhawks up 5-2. 
 
MSU started the finale off with a run in the first inning on an RBI single to center field by Nick Gooden. 
 
The first two-of-three RBIs from Ben Palmer came in the home half of the first as he blasted a home run to left field with Brooks Kettering on base to make it 2-1 Redhawks after the first. 
 
MSU tied it in the second, but Palmer and Stauss teamed up in the home half to drive in three more runs to give SEMO a 5-2 lead after two.
 
Heyman settled in and retired the Eagles in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings without allowing a run. 
 
The Redhawks would add a run in the third inning on a defensive miscue by MSU as Ian Riley came into score off the bat of Nolan Ackerman. The Redhawks led 6-2 after the third. 
 
A three-run fifth inning expanded SEMO's lead to 9-2 after Nolan Ackerman got the scoring going with an RBI sacrifice fly to right field to score Bryce Cannon. 
 
Palmer put the ball in play two batters later and an error by MSU's third baseman allowed two more Redhawks to come in, Ian Riley and Chance Resetich, to give SEMO the seven run lead. 
 
The Eagles would add three more in the seventh to make it 9-6 Redhawks, but RHP Payton Lawrence was stellar out of the pen allowing just one hit in the final 3.0 innings picking up his first save of 2024 as the Redhawks held on for the championship victory. Lawrence struck out four Eagles in the appearance, including the game-clinching swinging strikeout. 
 
 
Game 1
Josh Cameron got the Redhawks going with an RBI single to right field in the bottom of the first inning to give SEMO a 1-0 lead. He lined the ball into the outfield as Brooks Kettering came around to score.
 
Kettering added another run to the board for the Redhawks with an RBI double down the left field line. Keoni Coloma reached base three batters earlier with a one-out walk, Ian Riley singled up the middle, and Kettering drove in Coloma to make it 2-0 SEMO after the second. 
 
A three-run home run by MSU in the top of the fourth inning gave the Eagles their first lead of the game as Logan Castleman drove a ball over the left field fence to make it 3-2 MSU after the fourth inning. 
 
MSU would add another run in the fifth to make it 4-2, but SEMO would respond in the home half to regain the lead. 
 
Kettering led off the inning with a walk, and after a walk to Ty Stauss two batters later, the Redhawks were on 1^st & 2^nd with just one out. 
 
Third baseman Caleb Corbin rolled a single up the middle to score both Stauss and Kettering after a perfect sac-bunt by Cameron to tie the game at four. 
 
Coloma recorded the third, two-out, RBI of the inning with a single to right field to regain the lead for SEMO. Corbin came into score and the Redhawks led 5-4 after the fifth inning. 
 
The score would remain there until the ninth inning as both teams failed to score until the final frame of regulation. 
 
With one out in the ninth, MSU's Roman Kuntz hit a two-run home run to give the Eagles a 6-5 advantage. 
 
SEMO wouldn't go away as Josh Cameron hit his 14^th home run of the season, a solo blast, to left field. The opposite field homer came with one out in the inning and tied the game at six. 
 
In the 10^th, MSU rallied for seven runs in the final frame and held on for the 13-6 victory to set up a winner-takes-all matchup in the second game of the day.