SEMO heads to OVC Tournament as No. 2 seed

Southeast Missouri State sophomore hitter Ty Stauss swings at a pitch in a recent game against Missouri State at Capaha Field.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

Southeast Missouri State stumbled into the upcoming Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament in Lexington, Ky. with a pair of losses in its three-game road series at Eastern Illinois over the weekend.

The Redhawks (34-19, 16-8 OVC) finished two games in back of regular-season champion Belmont (37-19, 18-6) and will be the No. 2-seed in the tournament.

SEMO will open the postseason facing either No. 3-seed Morehead State (27-26, 14-10), No. 6-seed Tennessee Tech (27-25, 11-13), or No. 7-seed Murray State (30-24, 11-13) on Thursday at 2 p.m.

This season, a new format is being played as the four Wednesday games will be single-elimination, with the winners advancing to play in a double-elimination portion beginning on Thursday.

Saturday’s Championship Game will be a one-game “Winner Take All” matchup.

All games will air on ESPN+.

The Redhawks opened its season-concluding series against the Panthers (33-19, 11-12) with a 6-4 win, as starter Jason Rackers was solid on the mound.

He allowed just two earned runs while striking out six in seven innings.

Brett Graber, Ty Stauss, and Ben Palmer each had two hits for the Redhawks.

SEMO dropped the second game 7-5 after scoring five runs in the opening inning.

The Redhawks committed three errors in the loss, as only two of the seven Panther runs were earned.

On Saturday, Eastern Illinois won 5-1, as it scored four runs in the second inning, where it sent 10 hitters to the plate and had five hits.

The Redhawks' only run of the game came in the top of the seventh, where Lincoln Andrews hit a solo home run to right-center.

SEMO had four hits with Brett Graber, Ty Stauss, Andrews, and Danny Sperling getting one each.

Collin Wilma (0-2) took the loss, as he allowed four runs on six hits, walked two, and struck out three in 1.2 innings.

Keck recognized

SEMO junior catcher Andrew Keck was recently selected as one of 16 semifinalists for the 2022 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award.

To earn such a designation, the athletes must be the starting catcher for their team in 70 percent of the games, their batting average must be above .200, and have a minimum of 120 at bats.

The finalists will be announced June 7 with a final vote among the national committee taking place during the College World Series.

All finalists will be brought to Wichita and the winner will be announced on June 29.