April 23, 2006

Box Score

By Nathan Saverino, Redhawks Sports Information

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (Sunday, April 23, 2006) - Southeast Missouri dropped a critical match-up with OVC foe Austin Peay, 7-2. The two teams were tied for sixth in the conference coming into today's game; only six teams receive a bid to the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament in Paducah, Ky. The Redhawks failed to capitalize on several scoring opportunities and to 6-9 in conference play.

Southeast (15-22, 6-9 OVC) was tied or within one run for most of the game thanks to another good performance by starter Asif Shah. Shah (2-2) held the Governors (23-17, 7-8 OVC) in check for most of the game, recording a career-high 10 strikeouts. The junior transfer out of Cincinatti, OH held Austin Peay to just two runs through the first seven innings.

The Redhawks matched an early run scored in third inning by the Govs in their half of the inning. Jordan Payne led off the inning with a double to center and advanced to third on a swinging tap to the pitcher from Dustin Pritchett. After an out and a hit batter, Payne crossed the plate on a wild pitch delivered by starter Brad Daniel.

With the game knotted at one, the Govs did not recapture the lead until Southeast had a mishap on the field in the sixth. After Ryan Kane walked with one out, Shah had him picked off of first. However, Payne couldn't corral the throw from Aaron Rave and Kane was able to move up to third as the ball rolled into shallow left. The next batter, Tommy Smith, scored Kane on a groundout to short.

Even though Shah gave up two more runs in the eighth, the Redhawks were still in the ballgame, trailing only 4-1. Southeast failed to make anything out of lead-off doubles in the 5th, 6th, and 8th innings as Daniel (3-1) shut down the bats for most of the ballgame.

After Josh Parham come on and gave up three runs in the ninth, SEMO's comeback attempt in the ninth was not enough as they were able to score one more run in a last-ditch effort.

Omar Padilla recorded two of the four leadoff doubles with a 2-4 performance.  He now leads the team with 13 doubles on the season.  Padilla failed to score, though, as the two-through-five batters were a combined 0-13 at the plate.

Phillip Riley and Dustin Pritchett each saw their hitting streaks come to an end today and Southeast great Kerry Robinson's mark was surpassed by Austin Peay's Kane. Riley's streak ended at nine while Pritchett had hit safely in seven games.

Meanwhile, Ryan Kane extended his nation-high hitting streak to 36 games today, passing Robinson for the second-longest streak in OVC history. Kane finished the day 2-3 with a double, triple, 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored.

The Redhawks will travel to Kansas City to participate in the Best of the Midwest Tournament this week at Community America Ballpark. The squad will take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. and will try to win their third game of the season against Missouri on Wednesday at Noon. Both games can be heard live on 1220 KGIR and on the internet at www.kgir.com.