Box Score I Play-by-Play

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team cut a seven-run deficit to two in the top of the sixth inning, but the comeback attempt fell just short as host Southeast Missouri held on to beat the Colonels, 9-7, on Saturday afternoon in the finale of this weekend’s Ohio Valley Conference series at Capaha Field.

The loss snaps a seven-game winning streak and a six-game conference winning streak by the Colonels, and it drops their record to 14-16 (6-3 OVC). The conference winning streak was EKU’s longest since 2005.

The win improves SEMO to 9-24 (2-7 OVC) on the season.

Junior right-hander Anthony Bazzani (0-1) picked up the loss for EKU, going 4.2 innings and allowing eight runs (only four of them earned) on 11 hits. He also walked five batters.

For the second consecutive day, the Colonel bullpen was solid as senior left-hander Greg Terry, freshman right-hander Cody Creamer and freshman left-hander Nick Bozman limited SEMO to just one run on three hits over the final 3.1 innings of the game, allowing the Colonel offense to mount its comeback bid.

Right-hander Shae Simmons (2-4) earned the win for SEMO, going six innings and surrendering six runs on seven hits while striking out eight batters.

SEMO jumped on Bazzani early, as the Redhawks pounded out six hits and scored four runs in the bottom of the first.

After senior #A.J. Jamison# put EKU on the board in the top of the second with an RBI fielder’s choice, SEMO exploded for four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a commanding 8-1 lead. Kody Campbell provided the key hit in that inning when he laced a two-out, bases-clearing triple down the right field line off Creamer.

EKU hit the comeback trail in the top of the sixth. Sophomore Sean Hagen and senior Richie Rodriguez started the inning with back-to-back singles. After junior Austin Grisham popped out, senior Jacob Daniel blasted a two-run triple into right field. Sophomore Bryan Soloman followed that up with a double that scored Daniel, and then he went to third on a base hit by senior Dustin Dunlop. Two batters later, Jamison concluded the scoring with a two-run single through the right side of the infield that made the score 8-6.

The Colonels, however, did not score again until the top of the ninth when Grisham plated Rodriguez on a ground out to first. That was all EKU could muster in that inning, though, as the Colonels dropped their first game since late March.

Rodriguez finished the day 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Jamison drove in a team-high three runs.

Campbell recorded a career-high five RBI in the win for the Redhawks.

EKU returns to action next weekend when the Colonels host Eastern Illinois in a three-game series at Turkey Hughes Field.