May 21, 2005

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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - (Saturday, May 21, 2005) The Southeast Missouri State baseball team ended the 2005 regular season in fine fashion as they recorded their second-straight OVC series sweep with a 4-3 victory over Tennessee-Martin on a cloudy day at Capaha Field Saturday afternoon. The win clinched the Redhawks 11th-straight Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth under Head Coach Mark Hogan.

The Redhawks (24-30, 15-12 OVC) will head into the 2005 O'Reilly Auto Parts OVC Tournament as the No. 5 seed and one of the hottest teams in the OVC after winning eight of their last nine OVC contests to end the regular season.

The Skyhawks (12-43, 6-20 OVC) struck first for the second-straight game as they scored two runs in top of the first off of Redhawks starter Derek Herbig.

The Redhawks tied the game at two apiece in their half of the second. Brent Lawson recorded a infield single and Ernie Bracamonte doubled down the leftfield line to plate Lawson all the way from firstbase. Jordan Payne then reached on error by the third baseman that allowed Bracamonte to score to knot the game up.

In the third Bo Jenkins led-off the inning with a walk. Eric Horstman moved Jenkins to second on a bunt single. Both runners then advanced to third and second on a sacrifice bunt by Brady Noll. Frank Montiel drove in Jenkins with an RBI groundout to make it 3-2.

In the fourth the Redhawks added what would eventually be the winning run when Lawson led-off the inning with a double to center. He later moved to third on a Bracamonte sacrifice fly. He would later then score on a passed ball.

The Skyhawks added their last run in the fifth when Zach Dean scored on a Herbig wild pitch.

Ryan Forsyth then came in the sixth inning and shutdown the Skyhawks offense as he pitched the last four innings and was able to close the game with the potential winning runs on base in the ninth for his second save of the season.

Herbig (5-2) won his fifth game of the season pitching five strong innings allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits.

Bracamonte finished 2-3 with one RBI. He recorded two hits in each game of the series.

Lawson finished 2-4 with two runs scored.

Horstman went 1-3 to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and his streak of reaching base safely to a nation's best 46 straight games. He also started his 110th-straight game as well.

Blake Turner went 3-5 to lead the Skyhawks. Nick Bruner and Chris Rezabel each finished 2-4.

Scott Massey (3-7) was collared with the loss despite pitching the complete game. He allowed four runs on seven hits.

The Redhawks will play No. 4 seed Murray State in the opening game of the Tournament on Wednesday, May 25 at 2:30 p.m. in Paducah, Kentucky.