Southeast Missouri State baseball uses big fifth inning to roll past SIU Edwardsville

Southeast Missouri State's Chase Urhahn advances safely to third base in the fifth inning of a game against SIUE on Friday, March 23, 2018, at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau.

BEN MATTHEWS

Through four innings, the Southeast Missouri State baseball team had put good swings on the ball and produced a couple runs but was locked in a tie game. Then, its players came up to bat for a third time, and something changed.

The Redhawks were more patient at the plate, drawing four walks, and scored eight runs in the fifth inning to break the game open and chase SIU Edwardsville starting pitcher Nelson Martz. That eight-spot propelled the Redhawks to an 11-6 win over the visiting Cougars in Ohio Valley Conference action Friday at Capaha Field.

"I really thought we got pretty good swings off him early, but we expanded the zone down," SEMO coach Andy Sawyers said of Martz. "We did not do as good a job with the strike zone earlier in the game as I would have liked, but in that fifth inning we got the four walks. We started taking that, and then it was over. He needed us to be overtly aggressive and kind of swing at his pitches."

Southeast Missouri State's Wade Strauss sprints down the third base line during the fourth inning of a game against SIUE on Friday, March 23, 2018, at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau.

BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

After the win, Sawyers referenced a sabermetrics stat called "times through the order penalty," which has shown Major League Baseball batters improve drastically at the plate the third time they face a pitcher in a game. That effect was certainly on display against SIUE (5-14 overall, 1-6 OVC).

Through four innings, Martz had faced every SEMO (8-15, 5-2) batter twice and given up two runs on five hits and two walks. In the fifth, he went through the lineup for a third time and gave up three hits and two walks without recording an out before he was pulled.

"He was trying to get us to chase his stuff, and he did a good job previously, so everybody just kind of settled down and started seeing the ball up instead of chasing that stuff in the dirt," SEMO first baseman Tristen Gagan said. "That's why we had an eight-run inning."

Left fielder Chase Urhahn got the eight-run rally started with a single, part of a 3-for-4 day at the plate with three runs scored. Three batters later, Gagan drove in the first runs of the inning, producing a two-RBI single with the bases loaded.

"I had yet to see a fastball," Gagan said. "I had seen about nine curveballs in a row my first two at-bats, so I sat on the curveball and he threw it where I was looking."

Dirden then drew a four-pitch walk, one of three base on balls he had Friday, to load the bases. SIUE pulled Martz, but SEMO wasn't done. Center fielder Danny Wright drove in a run by drawing another walk, Gagan then scored on a wild pitch and Wade Stauss followed with a sacrifice fly.

Southeast Missouri State's Trevor Ezell warms up in the batter's box during a game against SIUE on Friday, March 23, 2018, at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau.

BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

Connor Basler, Urhahn and Peyton Faulkner also picked up RBIs in the fifth as SEMO batted around, tallying four hits and taking advantage of an SIUE error to go with the four walks.

By the time the inning ended, a 2-2 tie had turned into a 10-2 Southeast lead. SIUE never got closer than four the rest of the way.

"I thought we were putting good swings on the ball in the first four innings, and that fifth inning rolled around and we were just staying locked in, getting the job done," Urhahn said. "Everybody was swinging the bats well."

SEMO starter Christian Vick came out to pitch the sixth and lasted just two batters. No matter, Vick got the win in his first Friday start, giving up four runs in five-plus innings.

"He competed well, kept us in the game and left with a lead, which is all you can ask for from a starter," Sawyers said. "I thought he competed well even though he didn't have his best command."

The Redhawks have struggled with poor starts at times this season, but they scored first Friday. Urhahn led off the first with a double and came around to score on Trevor Ezell's one-out single.

That duo struck again in the third to extend the lead to 2-0. Urhahn singled to start the inning and moved to third on Ezell's one-out double. Urhahn scampered home on a wild pitch.

"I just came in and try to be a leadoff hitter, try to swing at pitches in the zone and not try to do too much as a leadoff hitter because I got the big RBI guys behind me," Urhahn said. "So I try to get on base and do what I can so they can hit me in."

SIUE didn't fold and scored twice to tie the game at 2-2. In the fourth, Brock Weimer produced a one-out solo home run to cut the deficit to one.

An inning later a leadoff walk to Bret Fehr came back to bite Vick, as the Cougars used one hit and two sacrifice bunts to score Fehr and tie the game.

That deadlock didn't last long. Next time up, Southeast exploded for those eight runs with Urhahn again starting the inning with a hit.

Martz took the loss, giving up eight hits, four walks and seven runs in four-plus innings.

With the win, SEMO improves to 5-2 in conference play. Since OVC play began, the Redhawks are 5-5, an improvement after a 3-10 start.

SEMO will look to continue the upward trend when it takes on SIUE at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"We started off a little slow here, and one thing we can build off of is winning conference games," Urhahn said. "So hopefully we can carry those into winning our midweek and non-conference games."