SEMO ROUNDUP: Southeast Missouri State softball splits with Jacksonville State to take sole possession of second place in OVC

The Southeast Missouri State softball team split with the first-place team in the Ohio Valley Conference on Sunday to finish the weekend with a 3-1 record.

After getting no-hit in a 1-0 Game 1 loss, Southeast rebounded with a 3-1 win over Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama. The Redhawks swept Tennessee Tech in a doubleheader Friday.

Southeast (38-15, 15-5 OVC) is now in sole possession of second place, and with two conference games remaining is two games back of Jacksonville State (33-13, 17-5) and two games ahead of third-place Austin Peay.

The sole run in Game 1 came with two outs in the sixth inning. Hannahstaysia Weaver scored from first base on Karsen Mosley's double to right centerfield. Mosley had two of the Gamecocks' three hits.

Faith Sims tossed a no-hitter, striking out five and issuing one walk. Kaylee Anderson took the loss for Southeast, giving up one run in two innings.

Facing a new starting pitcher, Southeast's bats got going in the second game. Rachel Anderson drove in the first run of the game on a second-inning single to right. An inning later, pinch hitter Madison Harris added to the lead with an RBI triple.

Jacksonville State got on the board in the sixth on a Taylor Beshears run-scoring double, but Anderson answered with a solo home run in the seventh. She had three of the Redhawks' five hits.

Kaylee Anderson got the save, tossing a scoreless final two innings. Haley Thogmartin struck out two in five innings and got the win, giving up one run on four hits.

Southeast closes out its non-conference slate with a game at St. Louis at 4 p.m. Wednesday and then wraps up the regular season at 1 p.m. Saturday with a home doubleheader against Morehead State.

Baseball

The search for a weekend series victory continues for Southeast.

The Redhawks dropped the rubber game to Purdue 6-2 on Sunday afternoon in West Lafayette, Indiana, to fall to 20-25. They haven't won a weekend series since the first week of March.

Purdue (17-26) outscored Southeast 16-8 in the series, with the Redhawks' sole triumph coming in a 3-2 win Saturday.

Sunday, the Boilermakers scored three runs in the third to grab the lead for good. They added a run next time up and another in the sixth and seventh for good measure.

Southeast's two runs came on an Andrew Keck sixth-inning single. The freshman catcher had two of the Redhawks' five hits.

Cole McKenzie led Purdue with three hits.

Freshman Noah Niznik took the loss for Southeast, giving up four runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings. James Kulak was the winning pitcher, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief.

Southeast returns to action at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a road game against Missouri. The Tigers are coached by Steve Bieser, who went 138-97 in four seasons with Southeast. Current headman Andy Sawyers replaced him.

Women's tennis

Southeast's season ended with a 4-0 loss to Austin Peay in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee.

The doubles team of Kseniya Zonova and Sneha Sinha won their doubles match, but the Governors won the other two doubles matches to capture the doubles point and then won the first three singles matches to gain the needed four points to advance.

Austin Peay later won the OVC Tournament title on Sunday.

The Redhawks end the season with a 12-10 record and their first OVC Tournament victory in 16 years.

Track and field

Southeast had 14 personal-best performances as the two-day Memphis Invitational concluded Saturday in Memphis, Tennessee.

Logan Blomquist had one of those performances, finishing second in the hammer throw with a career-best toss of 206 feet, 4 inches on Friday. Blomquist also won the shot put with a throw of 58-8.75. It was the fifth straight meet he's won gold in a throwing event. Stephen Zagurski was second in the shot put with a personal-record throw of 54-6.75.

Chris Durr came in second in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 15 minutes. 59.9 seconds. Andrew Ryan was third in the men's javelin with a throw of 165-1.

Maddie Keller led the women's team with a second-place finish in the 5,000 in 18:44.03.

Southeast is back in action next weekend. It competes in the Billy Hayes Invitational in Bloomington, Indiana, on Friday and the Arkansas Twilight on Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.