Southeast Missouri State baseball falls on the road to Arkansas State, 7-6

After tying the game with two runs in the top of the ninth, the Southeast Missouri State baseball team needed a scoreless inning.

It didn't get one.

Arkansas State took advantage of a leadoff walk and claimed a 7-6 walk-off win on Tuesday in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

SEMO, which led 3-0 after three innings, dropped to 0-4 with the loss.

Down to their last out in the ninth, the Redhawks knotted the game at 6-all thanks to Trevor Ezell's two-RBI double. But Southeast couldn't hold on.

ASU's Kyle MacDonald reached base on a walk to start the bottom of the ninth and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch allowed him to move up to third, and an intentional walk and hit batter loaded the bases with one out.

On a 3-2 count, SEMO's Ryan Losman plunked Jacob Jablonski, and MacDonald trotted home with the game-winning run.

SEMO struck first, as leadoff hitter Danny Wright drew a walk and came around to score on Ezell's sacrifice fly. Freshman catcher Wade Stauss doubled that lead in the second with a solo home run, SEMO's first homer of the season.

In the third, Connor Basler led off with a single and stole second. He later scored on an infield hit by Ezell to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

The Red Wolves (2-2) weren't deterred, though. They scored two runs in the fourth to pull within one run.

The Redhawks took advantage of two errors and scored an unearned run in the fifth to push the lead back to two, 4-2.

But ASU responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame. MacDonald started the rally with a one-out single, and Logan Andersen drove him in with a two-out triple. Andersen then scored on a throwing error to tie the game at 4-4.

An inning later, Tobias Johnson produced a two-out run-scoring single to give ASU its first lead of the game. He added another two-out RBI single in the eighth to give the hosts a 6-4 lead.

SEMO rallied and tied the game in the ninth, thanks to Ezell's clutch hit. Alex Nielsen drew a leadoff walk, the first of the three in the inning. With the bases loaded, Ezell stepped to the plate and smacked a double to tie the game.

But the Redhawks couldn't hold on to send the game into extra innings.

Losman took the loss, giving up two runs, two hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings.

Ezell finished with two of SEMO's five hits, going 2-for-4. ASU out-hit the Redhawks 11-5.

Southeast returns to the field looking for its first win at 3 p.m. Friday in its home opener against Bowling Green, the start of a four-game series.

— From staff report