Local kid throwing well (of late) for red-hot SEMO

Southeast Missouri State junior pitcher Hunter Ralls gets ready to throw on Tuesday against Missouri State at Capaha Field.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

This spring has proven to be a mixed bag for Southeast Missouri State junior pitcher Hunter Ralls.

The Anna, Ill. native has put together several impressive performances out of the bullpen, as he has helped the Redhawks pursue their second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship. However, the right-hander has also had several outings that he would probably like to have had back.

If a pitcher is only as good as his last outing, then Ralls is tremendous heading into a critical three-game series against UT Martin, which starts on Friday at 6 p.m. at Capaha Field.

“He’s got a 90 (m.p.h.) to 92 fastball,” veteran SEMO baseball coach Andy Sawyers said after watching Ralls contain Missouri State on Tuesday. “So, he has good stuff.”

After the Redhawks (31-16) had dug themselves a 7-3 hole by the fourth inning against the Bears, Sawyers turned to Ralls, who was coming off a nice two-inning outing against No. 3-ranked Oklahoma State. However, prior to that, Ralls had struggled against both Missouri and Southern Illinois.

“He, at times, becomes a one-pitch pitcher,” Sawyers said. “Even though he has good velocity… if (the hitters) know a fastball is coming, they are going to hit it.”

Sawyers said that it is critical for Ralls to mix in breaking balls with his power pitches, in order to keep hitters off-balance.

He did that through 3 2/3 innings on Tuesday, as the Redhawk offense found its footing and rallied for an 8-7 win.

He did not allow a run, while giving up five hits, walking one, and striking out three.

“He started getting his breaking ball involved and throwing some strikes,” Sawyers said. “He did a wonderful job of landing the breaking ball and getting the slider involved in the game.

“The fastball plays way better if they have to respect the breaking ball.”

Ralls spent two seasons at nearby John A. Logan Community College before signing with SEMO last year.

He has improved this spring, as he has lowered his hits allowed (45 to 39), earned runs (25 to 15), and walks (20 to 10) through a comparable number of innings (38 2/3 vs. 33 2/3).

He also threw six games for the Cape Catfish last summer, with four outings in which he lasted at least six innings as a starter.

For the Redhawks, he has shown some versatility to start (six times) as opposed to coming out of the bullpen (28 times).

“We didn’t play great into the fifth (inning),” Sawyers said of the win over Missouri State, “and then Hunter gets on a roll. You change the momentum of a game on defense.

“We kind of muddled through the first half of the game, and the Hunter got the game back under control for us.”

The Redhawks (13-5) are tied for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with Belmont (13-5) with six league games remaining.

This weekend series will close the home season for SEMO at Capaha Field, where Sawyers’ team has won 21 of its 22 games.

“Capaha has been so good to us,” Sawyers said, “Hopefully, we can ride it out for one more weekend. I don’t want to jinx anything, but what a great story if we can finish this weekend off right.”

SEMO will play the Skyhawks (10-32, 3-18) on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.