SUNDAY'S SCORES
Southeast Missouri 15, @Eastern Illinois 4
@SIUE 9, Lindenwood 3
Morehead State 12, @Little Rock 1
@Southern Indiana 8, Tennessee Tech 1
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 15, EASTERN ILLINOIS 4
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Southeast Missouri Baseball (12-13, 3-0 OVC) opened the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference season with a three-game sweep of Eastern Illinois (5-16, 0-3 OVC) with a 15-4 win on Sunday afternoon at Coaches Stadium.
The Redhawks ended the series with 56-runs, scoring the final 15 on Sunday afternoon with 17 hits led by third baseman Caleb Corbin. Corbin finished the day going 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, triple, and an RBI. He came around to score four times in the contest.
First baseman Bryce Cannon, second baseman Brooks Kettering, left fielder Ty Stauss, and designated hitter Keoni Coloma all had multi-RBI days led by Cannon with three. Five different Redhawks had multiple hits.
SEMO continued its offensive weekend in the first inning as Kettering led off the game with a single. A sacrifice bunt by Ben Palmer and a single by Michael Mugan put runners on first and third.
Stauss doubled home both the runners to put SEMO up 2-0. Corbin registered his first triple in a Redhawks uniform to score Stauss, and the RBI made it 3-0 SEMO after the first.
RHP Sam Heyman (2-0) pitched 5.0 innings and picked up his second win of the season. Heyman did not allow a run in the contest and allowed just three hits.
Bryce Cannon led off the second inning with a home run to give SEMO a 4-0 lead. The blast was his sixth of the season.
Heyman continued to mow down Panthers as the Redhawks continued to score runs throughout the game.
A four run third inning, the Redhawks led off the inning reaching base with back-to-back errors by the Panthers' defense and put Corbin and Cameron on first and second, respectively.
DH Keoni Coloma pushed across two RBIs with a single to right field, and an error allowed runners to move up and the Redhawks led 6-0 in the middle of the inning.
Back-to-back RBI singles by Kettering and Palmer made it 8-0 as the game turned to the fourth inning.
Three more runs in the fourth inning and two more runs in the fifth inning was all it took as the Redhawks hung on for the 15-4 series sweeping win.
SIUE 9, LINDENWOOD 3
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE baseball put up a big inning and used strong pitching to pick up a 9-3 win Sunday over Lindenwood at Roy E. Lee Field. The Cougars won two of three to take the first OVC series of the year.
The Cougars are now 2-1 in OVC play and 7-17 overall. Lindenwood dipped to 1-2 in the OVC and 6-17 overall.
The series win marks the first time SIUE has won its first OVC series of the year since 2020, when they played just a single league series.
Kyle Athmer made his first start of the season and put 4.1 scoreless innings. He allowed seven hits and struck out two. He did not walk a batter.
SIUE got on the board in the third inning with an RBI-double from Lucas Spence. Chase Bloomer added an RBI on a groundout and Gage Franck drove in another with a single for a 3-0 SIUE lead.
Lindenwood got a leadoff home run from Bryson Arnette in the sixth inning and had runners on second and third with one out. Cougar reliever Zeus Ponder induced a pop up back to the mound on a bunt attempt, which he caught and then doubled the runner off third to end the inning.
SIUE followed with a five-run bottom of the sixth. The Cougars hit four doubles in the inning Daniel Gierer drove home a run with a double, Drew Mize plated two and Spence added his second RBI-double of the day for an 8-1 SIUE lead.
It was 8-2 when Spence singled home a run in the seventh inning. He finished the day 3-5 with three RBIs and a run scored while extending his hitting streak to nine games. Gierer was 2-4 with the RBI and a run.
Ethan Willoughby and Gage Franck also had two hits for SIUE.
Ponder worked the end of the fifth into the seventh inning. He allowed 2 runs, one earned, on three hits. He struck out one.
Liam McKillop (1-0) pitched the final three innings to earn his first win of the year. He struck out three and allowed a run on two hits.
The Cougars and Lions finished with 12 hits apiece. SIUE finished with double digit hits in all three games of the series.
Josh Newell (1-2) allowed three runs, one earned, in five innings in the loss. Arnette finished 3-2 with two RBIs for the Lions.
MOREHEAD STATE 12, LITTLE ROCK 1
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Morehead State baseball team took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never surrendered the advantage on the way to a 12-1 victory against the Little Rock Trojans on Sunday, salvaging the series.
Freshman Callum McGill (2-2) started on the mound and picked up the win for Morehead State (13-11, ). The right-hander went five innings, giving up one run on three hits, allowing one walk and striking out four. Sophomore Josh Furtado also made an impact on the mound for the Eagles, throwing two scoreless innings while allowing no hits, with two walks and one strikeout.
In the batter's box, the Eagles were paced by senior Roman Kuntz, who went 3-for-3 on the day with a double, a home run, two walks and three RBI. Freshman Davis Germann put together a standout performance at the dish as well, going 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Isaias Guzman also contributed for Morehead State, putting together two hits in four trips to the plate while adding a walk and an RBI.
The Eagles got the scoring started early, putting one run on the board in the top of the first inning.
The Trojans failed to push any runs across before the Eagles built on their lead in the third inning. Germann's run-scoring single highlighted an inning where Morehead State scored twice, which brought the Eagles lead to 5-0.
Morehead State held Little Rock without a run before building their lead to 10-0 in the fifth inning. The Eagles bats heated up in the inning, scoring five runs, including a two-run single off the bat of freshman Nick Gooden.
The Trojans gained ground, closing the gap to 10-1 until Morehead State added some insurance in the seventh. The Eagles scored twice on Kuntz's two-run homer, bringing the Morehead State advantage to 12-1. The score remained 12-1 for the rest of the game, as the Eagles coasted to the win.
SOUTHERN INDIANA 8, TENNESSEE TECH 1
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - University of Southern Indiana Baseball captured its first Ohio Valley Conference series of the season with an 8-1 win over Tennessee Tech University Sunday afternoon at the USI Baseball Field. USI is 11-12 overall and 2-1 in the OVC, while TTU goes to 13-11, 1-2 OVC.
The Screaming Eagles have won four series overall this season, matching the season total of series victories in 2023.
USI got the scoring started in the bottom first with a tally in the opening frame. USI senior first baseman Tucker Ebest (Austin, Texas) started the rally with a double down the right field line before being driven in by a senior designated hitter Jack Ellis (Jeffersonville, Indiana) on a two-out RBI-single to right for the 1-0 lead.
Ellis would end the game with a team-best three-for-four at the plate with two runs scored and two RBI.
USI increased the lead to 5-0 with a four-run surge in the bottom of the third, beginning with a RBI ground out by Ebest and a RBI-single by Ellis. Junior catcher Logan Mock (Livermore, California) followed with a RBI-triple to left for the third run of the frame, while junior centerfielder Terrick Thompson-Allen (Souix City, Iowa) finished the scoring in the frame with a RBI-single through the right side to make the score 5-0.
USI junior second baseman Lane Crowden (Jackson, Missouri) capped off a three-run fifth with a two-run single to extend the USI advantage to 8-0. Crowden tied Ellis for the team-lead with two RBIs in the game.
TTU would get a tally in the top of the eighth before USI closed the door on the 8-1 victory.
USI junior right-hander Gavin Morris (Jeffersonville, Indiana) picked up his team-high tying third win of the season. Morris (3-1) three six scoreless, allowing three hits and three walks, while striking out three batters.
Morris was followed to the mound by freshman right-hander Clayton Weisheit (Ferdinand, Indiana) and junior right-hander Tyler Hutson (Villa Hills, Kentucky). Weisheit gave up a run on two hits and a base on balls in two innings, while Hutson allowed a hit and struck out three in the ninth.