Southeast baseball team advances to championship round of OVC tourney

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team advanced to the championship round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament for the first time since 2008 with a 9-4 victory over No. 6 Belmont in an elimination game on Saturday at The Ballpark in Jackson, Tennessee.

The top-seeded Redhawks will face No. 2 Morehead State at 4:30 p.m. If Southeast wins it would force a winner-take-all championship at noon Sunday.

The Redhawks defeated Jacksonville State 12-4 and Tennessee Tech 14-1 in back to back elimination games on Friday to stay alive in the conference tournament and set up a rematch with the Bruins, who beat Southeast in the Redhawks' first game of the tournament Thursday.

Belmont jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, knocking Southeast starter Jacob Lawrence out of the game after 2/3 of an inning. Reliever Ryan Lenaburg issued a walk to the first batter he faced to load the bases and fell behind 3-0 to the next batter before recording a strikeout to escape the jam.

Lenaburg walked shortstop Kyle Conger to lead off the second. Conger was bunted to second, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on a base hit by Drew Ferguson to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead.

Southeast had the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, but first baseman Ryan Rippee grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Belmont had a runner on third with two outs in the third after a leadoff single, a stolen base and an error but Lenaburg stranded him with his second strikeout of the frame.

The Bruins scored their final run in the top of the fourth. Right fielder Brennan Washington doubled off the third-base bag to start the frame, was sacrificed to third and scored on a single that made it 4-0.

The Redhawks drew back-to-back walks and Mitchell singled to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Rippee and left fielder Hunter Leeper followed with consecutive RBI singles to right to cut it to 4-2. Leadoff batter Trevor Ezell then tripled off the wall in right center to drive in three and give Southeast its first lead of the game at 5-4. Ezell accounted for the final run of the inning when he scored on a groundout.

Lenaburg allowed just one hit over the final five innings of the game as he picked up the win on the mound. He gave up six hits in 8 1/3 innings of relief, walked three and struck out six.

Southeast added three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Shortstop Branden Boggetto reached on a fielder's choice and right fielder Dalton Hewitt got on base on a fielding error by the shortstop with two outs. Center fielder Andy Lennington hit an infield single and advanced to second and a run scored on a throwing error by the third baseman.

Pinch hitter Cole Ferguson singled in Hewitt for the final score.

Beat reporter Erin Unerstall will provide occasional updates from the tournament on this blog post and frequent updates on Twitter @semoballErin.

A tournament preview can be found here.

Get caught up on complete coverage of the Southeast baseball team here, including profiles on Southeast coach Steve Bieser, standout senior Jason Blum and OVC pitcher of the year Joey Lucchesi.

The Redhawks' claimed a share of their second straight conference title and the top seed with a shutout of Belmont on March 14 and were crowned the champions the next night despite a loss.

Southeast's back to back titles marks the first time it's been done since Austin Peay accomplished the same feat in 2003 and 2004 and the first time ever in program history. The Redhawks only other conference championship was won in 2002.

A complete recap from Southeast's 7-2 loss to Belmont on Thursday night can be found here.

Tournament schedule

Wednesday, May 20

Game 1 - No. 4 Tennessee Tech 5, No. 5 Jacksonville State 3

Game 2 - No. 6 Belmont 9, No. 3 SIU Edwardsville 7 (11 innings)

Thursday, May 21

Game 3 - No. 5 Jacksonville State 8, No. 3 SIU Edwardsville 5 (SIUE eliminated)

Game 4 - No. 2 Morehead State 4, No. 4 Tennessee Tech 3 (10 innings)

Game 5 - No. 6 Belmont 7, No. 1 Southeast Missouri State 2

Friday, May 22

Game 6 - No. 1 Southeast Missouri State 12, No. 5 Jacksonville State 4 (JSU eliminated)

Game 7 - No. 1 Southeast Missouri State 14, No. 4 Tennessee Tech 1 (TTU eliminated)

Game 8 - No. 2 Morehead State 8, No. 6 Belmont 4

Saturday, May 23

Game 9 - No. 1 Southeast Missouri State 9, No. 6 Belmont 4 (Belmont eliminated)

Game 10 - No. 2 Morehead State vs. No. 1 Southeast, 4:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 24 (if necessary)

Game 11 - Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 10, noon