Southeast Baseball

The Ohio Valley Conference announced on Tuesday that the Baseball Championship will be held on May 27-29 at The Ballpark at Jackson in Jackson, Tenn. “We are excited to have the OVC Baseball Championship back at The Ballpark at Jackson,” OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche said in a statement. “There is a level of comfort in going back to a place that has been so good to our league in the past.”...

Tyler Wilber went 3 for 5, driving in two RBIs as well as knocking in the go-ahead run Friday to capture Southeast Missouri State Head Coach Andy Sawyers' 100th career win, to down Jacksonville State, 6-5. With two on in the sixth inning, and the Redhawks trailing 5-4, Wilber laced a single to left field off Gamecock's hurler Jackson Tavel, bringing home both pinch-runner Brett Graber and Wade Strauss, to put SEMO on top for good...

Southeast Missouri State junior Tyler Wilbur was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week Monday, his first time doing so in his collegiate career. Wilbur hit .611 with nine RBIs, a pair of doubles, and two runs scored for the Redhawks last week...

In his pursuit of a career record, Southeast Missouri State senior Connor Basler reached a milestone for something else. The speedy second baseman hit his first career home run in the second inning of a 9-8 extra-inning loss to Missouri State on Tuesday...

Missouri State rallied for five runs in the final two innings to edge Southeast Missouri State in extra innings, Tuesday, at Capaha Field. SEMO took a 3-0 advantage in the bottom of the second, as Connor Basler hit the first home run of his career, a two-run shot to left field, followed by a Danny Wright triple that scored Jevon Mason...

Southeast Missouri State shook off its exasperating defeat at the hands of their rival earlier in the week with a comeback victory at Eastern Illinois on Friday at Charleston, Ill. SEMO entered the series in a three-way tie with Murray State and Tennessee Tech for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference. The win keeps the Redhawks on top with a 5-2 record in conference play...

Wednesday’s game between Southeast Missouri State and Southern Illinois felt like a homecoming for Saluki head coach Lance Rhodes. Rhodes played high school baseball at Sikeston and started his college career at St. Louis before finishing at SEMO. He was on the coaching staff during the Redhawks’ best years in recent memory and experienced life in the SEC at Missouri before getting his first head coaching job...

The Southeast Missouri baseball team split a pair of extra-inning games with Austin Peay Saturday, defeating the Governors in the first game of a double-header, 6-5 in 11 innings, before dropping the nightcap, 12-11, in 12 innings. The Redhawks won the weekend series despite losing the last of the double-header 2-1, winning Friday, 6-3...

Former Southeast Missouri State pitcher and assistant coach Lance Rhodes returns to Capaha Field for the first time as an opposing coach, leading Southern Illinois to a standalone rivalry game with the Redhawks on Tuesday. “I’m sure there’ll be some weird feeling whenever I’m on the first base side dugout, whenever I spent four years over on the third-base side,” Rhodes said. ...

SEMO catcher Wade Strauss had a hit and two RBIs while relief pitcher Austin Williams slammed the door on Austin Peay, pitching two scoreless innings, to give the Redhawks a 6-3 win, Friday. Strauss found a fourth- inning pitch to his liking and drove the ball to right field, plating both his younger brother Ty Strauss and infielder Conner Basler to extend the SEMO lead to 4-1...

One surefire way to find out who one of the stars of the baseball team is when you’re at a game for the first time is to see how the dugout reacts to the batter’s walkup song. Southeast Missouri State junior shortstop Tyler Wilber steps to the plate with electronic dance music blaring through the speakers at Capaha Field. The players slap the padded top rail of the dugout in unison synchronized to the beat of his song...

Southeast Missouri State junior infielder Tyler Wilbur went 3 for 4 with a home run, a run scored, and drove in four RBIs, including the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, to lead the Redhawks past Saint Louis Tuesday in St. Louis, 8-6.

Southeast Missouri State fought back to .500 with a doubleheader sweep over SIU Edwardsville on Saturday at Edwardsville. The Redhawks have won three of four series this season. Their only series loss came in a four-game sweep against top-ranked Arkansas...

The sports world completely changed one year ago. The coronavirus pandemic began to become a real thing when two NBA players tested positive and sports leagues quickly went from playing in empty arenas to completely shutting down for months as everyone stayed home fearing infection yet hoping it would shortly pass.

Every successful baseball team needs an ace that the head coach can confidently hand the ball to knowing that his successful start will set the tone of the series. Southeast Missouri State has that ace in senior Dylan Dodd. Dodd returned to SEMO after given an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic cancelling the spring season after two months. He impressed with a 3.37 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 26.2 innings pitched over four starts and was on the MLB Draft radar...

Southeast Missouri State rebounded after being swept on the road by the top-ranked team in the nation by taking three out of four games against Illinois State. The Redhawks capped off their first home series with an 8-1 series win over the Redbirds on Sunday at Capaha Field...

Southeast Missouri State freshman Peyton Leeper hasn’t had a ton of success so far in 2021, but on Friday, the young infielder provided the winning hit for the Redhawks in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat Illinois State 4-3 at Capaha Field.

Southeast Missouri State senior baseball players helped the Redhawks get off to a solid start to the 2021 season this past weekend and were honored by the Ohio Valley Conference on Monday for doing so.

Southeast Missouri (2-1) claimed the first series of the season by mounting a comeback in the ninth inning and defeating South Alabama in 10 innings on Sunday at Mobile, Ala. The Redhawks were down 5-3 going into the ninth inning. Austin Blazevic scored on a wild pitch after leading off the rally with a base hit. A sacrifice fly ball by Wade Stauss tied the game and an RBI single by Andrew Keck gave SEMO the lead...

Southeast Missouri State got off to a strong start to the 2021 baseball season, as senior left-hander Dylan Dodd struck out eight and allowed only one walk to lead the Redhawks to a 4-2 win at South Alabama on Friday in Mobile, Ala.

The lives of everyone within Southeast Missouri have been in “adjust” mode with the pummeling of snow that blanketed the area this week (and more expected to come).

Leading the Southeast Missouri State baseball program has been a challenge for fifth-year coach Andy Sawyers over the past two seasons.

Southeast Missouri State released its baseball schedule on Friday with the start of the season only two weeks away. A new wrinkle to the Ohio Valley Conference slate is replacing Sunday matinees with double-headers on Saturday. The 2021 season will begin on Friday, Feb. 19, at home against Milwaukee. The four-game series includes a double-header on Saturday, which is a theme for this season...

Former Southeast Missouri State great Trevor Ezell never had plans to be a coach. Yet after a year and a half away from SEMO, he returns to the baseball program as staff as the Director of Offensive Player Development, beginning the first step of his new career...

CHARLESTON, Mo. — Two Charleston baseball players signed on the dotted line to continue their academic and athletic careers at the next level. Dawson Crawford signed to pitch at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau while Luke Nichols signed to Jefferson College in Hillsboro...

Earlier this week, Ohio Valley Commissioner Beth DeBauche wasn’t ready to make any significant adjustments as it related to the 2020 football season. However, she did state that the OVC Board of Presidents would be meeting on July 22 and 29 and may be doing just that.

This summer is nowhere near ready to fade off into memory either from a heat perspective or a baseball one.

Good Sports is a column featured weekly in the Southeast Missourian and on semoball.com. It is primarily designed to showcase people who have impacted the sporting life of Southeast Missouri, so that readers may get to know them more fully. Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity...

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Andy Sawyers didn’t have any doubts that fifth-year senior Justin Dirden would be coveted by Major League Baseball teams this spring. It was simply a matter of whether or not the star outfielder would be selected in the abbreviated five-round MLB Draft this week or not.

The 2020 Southeast Missouri State baseball squad pounded out 21 home runs in its 17 games during this abbreviated spring season, and none were hit by freshman infielder Landon Hahn. However, don’t think for a moment that the Jackson High School graduate didn’t help the Redhawks be successful, as they won 8 of their last 11 games prior to the season ending due to the coronavirus pandemic.

There would be little debate that the 2020 baseball season for the Southeast Missouri State program will long be remembered, but that is because a global pandemic shut the season down 17 games into the season. However, there were positives to take from the shortened spring, most notably that the Redhawks fielded their first All-American player in four years...

You have to feel for Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Andy Sawyers a tad. He’s been guiding the Redhawks for four years as of this summer and half of his tenure has been a mess due to just poor luck.

For the time being, the NCAA rule book as it pertains to off-season diligence by Division I programs is a very, very fluid situation. What was allowed a few weeks ago (for example, virtual workouts), is no longer acceptable.