CAPAHA FIELD- Southeast Missouri Baseball (5-5) split Saturday's doubleheader with Purdue Ft. Wayne (1-9) on Saturday afternoon by dropping the first game, 9-5, before picking up the victory in game two by a final score of 6-5. 
 
The Redhawks got a fantastic start from RHP Nathan Mertens in game two of the day as he made his first career start on the mound pitching 6.2 innings in the outing. Mertens allowed just one run on six hits and punched out a career-high nine hitters in the start. 
 
Right fielder Cole Warehime blasted his second home run of the season to get SEMO on the board in the second inning of game two. Warehime hit the ball over the left field fence off PFW's starting pitcher, Zane Danielson, to give the Redhawks an early 1-0 lead.
 
The Mastodons would score their only run off Mertens in the top of the third inning with an RBI single to center field with two outs in the inning. 
 
SEMO would score again in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly to left field by left fielder Ty Stauss. Stauss' fly ball would be enough to score Brooks Kettering from third base to give SEMO a 2-1 lead heading into the sixth inning. A seventh inning sacrifice fly from Michael Mugan would give the Redhawks a two-run lead heading into the final two innings. 
 
An RBI double to left field and a Mastodon two-run home run to right field would regain the lead for the visitors in the top of the eighth inning as they lead 4-3 going to the bottom half. 
 
LHP Alex Hayes (1-0) came into stop the bleeding recording a pair of strikeouts to get SEMO out of the inning.
 
A leadoff single by Mikey Rocha got a big inning going for the Redhawks in the bottom half of the eighth. A walk and a throwing error allowed two more Redhawks to reach base, loading the bases for designated hitter Carson Schrack. 
 
An RBI ground out from Schrack got a run back and then a wild pitch got antoher run back to regain a 5-4 advantage for the Redhawks. Short stop Andrew Ramirez recorded an RBI single to make it 6-4 Redhawks heading into the ninth inning. 
 
A solo home run for PFW In the top of the ninth inning off Hayes and a one-out single off Eddie White (making his first appearance of 2025) brought on LHP Cade Perkins. Perkins got the next two hitters out and picked up his first save of the year as the Redhawks held on for the 6-5 victory. 
Game One
The Mastodons took advantage of errors from the Redhawks defense in the first game on Saturday scoring runs in the first six innings. 
 
The Redhawks would have a big fifth inning, scoring four runs to make it 6-4 PFW heading into the sixth inning, but PFW would add another run in the sixth to make it 7-4. The Redhawks would score another run in the eighth, but two more Mastodon runs would be enough as they held on for the 9-5 victory. 
 
Brooks Kettering and Ty Stauss would each finish with a pair of hits as the only Redhawks to record a multi-hit game in the first game. As an offense, SEMO totaled nine hits but were outhit by a 14-9 margin. 
 
Looking Ahead
The series finale with PFW will be on Sunday, March 2, for the fourth game of the series. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m., CT. from Capaha Field.