Southeast Missouri State baseball opens Eastern Illinois series with a victory
The Southeast Missouri State baseball team compiled 11 hits, got a strong outing from starting pitcher Clay Chandler and defeated Eastern Illinois 7-3 on the road Friday to open a three-game series against the Ohio Valley Conference opponent.
Dan Holst paced Southeast (16-12 overall, 7-6 OVC) with a 3-for-5 day.
Chandler (6-2) threw six innings, allowing just one run while scattering seven hits, striking out eight and walking one. His eight Ks was one short of a season high.
Carlos Vega picked up a save for a second straight game. It was his fourth of the year.
EIU (5-24, 2-8) got four innings from starting pitcher Jake Haberer (0-2), as the Redhawks victimized him for six runs on eight hits. He struck out four but walked three and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch.
Tristen Gagan was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a double and an RBI for the Redhawks, while Brian Lees was 2-for-4 with a home run and three runs knocked in.
Chris Osborne wnet 2-for-5 with a solo homer.
Jimmy Govern and Matt Albert each went 2-for-4 for the Panthers.
Jared Waldhoff threw two innings of relief for SEMO, giving up one run on one hit. Matthew Wade followed and allowed one run on one hit in 1/3 of an inning before Vega shut the door with the game's final two outs.
Southeast opened the scoring in the top of the third inning when EIU failed to convert a fielder's choice on a Gagan ground ball, allowing a run to score for a 1-0 advantage.
SEMO tacked on another in the top of the fourth when a wild pitch by Haberer allowed Danny Wright to score from third base.
Osborne led off the fifth with a blast to right-center field before Holst and Gagan had back-to-back singles, setting the table for Lees to hit his fourth home run of the season and push the lead to 6-0.
The Panthers got on the board in the bottom of the sixth thanks to consecutive doubles from Dougie Parks and Albert.
A sacrifice fly from Wright scored Gagan in the top of the seventh, making the score 7-1.
EIU pushed a run home on a ground out in the eighth inning and then got another on a Justin Smith solo home run in the ninth.
The hosts loaded the bases with one out against Wade before Vega got a double play to end the game.
Game 2 of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday.
— From staff report