RICHMOND, Ky. – Senior Shawn Flora capped Senior Day with a go-ahead two-out two-run single in the bottom of the fifth to lead the Eastern Kentucky baseball team to a 2-1 victory over Southeast Missouri, earning the Colonels a split of an OVC doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Turkey Hughes Field. Sophomore Christian Friedrich hurled a one-hitter in game one of the doubleheader but it wasn't enough as the Redhawks won a 1-0 thriller behind a two-hitter from Asif Shah. Eastern finishes the day 20-23-1 overall and 9-9 in the OVC while SEMO goes to 28-19 and 13-7.
The Colonels entered the fifth inning of game two trailing 1-0 and Southeast starter Josh Syberg retired the first two Colonel hitters before walking sophomore Dylan McMaine. Junior Clint Seymour followed with a double down the right field line to put runners on second and third and freshman Breck Norment then reached on a hit by pitch to load the bases.
Flora, who was one of four Colonel seniors honored prior to game one, then drilled the second pitch he saw up the middle to bring home McMaine and Seymour, giving the Colonels a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish.
Sophomore Chris Grider (6-3) picked up his team-leading sixth victory, allowing just one run in 5.0 innings of work. Grider walked Robby Moore to lead off the sixth and Eastern brought in junior McKenzie Willoughby who retired all six batters he faced to earn his fourth save.
The Redhawks had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on an Omar Padilla run-scoring single, driving in Daryl Graham.
Game one featured a match-up of the two of the conference's top pitchers in Friedrich and Shah who entered the game third (2.47) and fifth (3.12), respectively, in the league in ERA and the two did not disappoint.
Shah got the Redhawks only hit of the game to lead off the second, blooping a double down the left field line. He moved to third on a Matt Wagner groundout to second and then came home on a run-scoring groundout from Matt Wulfers.
Friedrich (3-3) dominated SEMO from there as he allowed just two more base runners the rest of the day neither of whom made it past first. The southpaw finished the day with eight strike outs and no walks in his 7.0 innings of work.
Shah was equally as dominant though, allowing only a second inning single to junior Joe Oliver over the first six frames.
Eastern tried to rally in the seventh and the final inning as junior Tyler Barnett led off with a single to left. He then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from junior Lucas Waters and on to third on groundout from sophomore Matt Davis. Shah walked senior Tony Wells to put runners on first and third but got Oliver to ground into a force out at second to end the game which lasted just one hour and 26 minutes.
Shah (6-2) struck out only three but allowed just two hits over his 7.0 innings to earn the victory.
EKU returns to action next weekend, traveling to face off against Eastern Illinois
