Southeast Missouri State's Joey Lucchesi providing pitching staff with leading role

Heading into the season, Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser listed four pitchers he considered "interchangeable" in the starting role.

One of those was junior transfer Joey Lucchesi, who has been anything but interchangeable. He's established himself as the Redhawks ace.

Lucchesi, an obvious candidate for Ohio Valley Conference pitcher of the year, leads the league with a 3.06 ERA and 75 strikeouts. He's also tops in the conference with opponents batting just .196 against him and only allows 6.25 hits per game. He's been named the conference's pitcher of the week twice.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound lefty who transferred to Southeast from Chabot College in Hayward, California, is 6-1 on the season and will be on the mound to start tonight's series opener against non-conference foe Indiana State in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"What we noticed as a coaching staff was that he had three plus-pitches, and if you have command of three plus-pitches, you're usually going to be very successful, but I don't know that anyone of us could have said that he was going to dominate hitters quite the way he has to this point," Bieser said. "When you have that, even when he gets in a bind you almost feel that he's got a chance to work his way out of any situation if he makes his pitches. *... Sometimes when guys get in trouble their stuff's just not good enough to work themselves out of tight situations, but Joey's stuff's good enough. It's just more of a mental state of being able to handle those types of pressure situations."

Lucchesi, who uses a combination of fastball, curveball and changeup, hasn't fooled hitters all season, though.

He began the year in the bullpen and pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief against Bowling Green in the Redhawks' opening weekend. However, he allowed three earned runs in one inning against Illinois State and three earned runs in 1/3 of an inning against Bradley.

Lucchesi's next appearance came March 9, when he got his first shot in the starting rotation in the finale of Southeast's first OVC series against Eastern Kentucky. He picked up his first win, allowing one earned run on five hits over seven innings in a 13-1 victory.

He followed that up with a win over Morehead State in which he allowed six earned runs, his most all season, before becoming nearly untouchable.

He gave up just two hits in seven shutout innings against both UT Martin and SIU Edwardsville on March 21 and March 28 before becoming the Redhawks' Friday night starter. At the time, Bieser attributed Lucchesi's success to figuring out the preparation it took to be a starter.

"He has an entire routine he goes through. He needs that time," Bieser said, noting that he contemplated inserting him in relief against Missouri on Tuesday night but knew it was not the right situation. "I think some it's physical, but I think also some of it's mental and kind of getting in that state of mind and being able to get things rolling."

Southeast junior catcher Scott Mitchell, who played alongside Lucchesi at Chabot College in 2013, attested to the pitcher's need to compose himself following his latest win -- a 9-1 victory over Tennessee Tech a week ago in which he allowed one earned run and four hits over eight innings. He struck out a career-high 13 batters for the second week in a row.

"The way he works -- he works slow. He's a guy that's very big on preparation and very routine, and being out of the bullpen I don't think it allowed him to get his mind right the way he wanted to and he struggled," Mitchell said. "As soon as they gave him the opportunity to start and he was able to work the way he's accustomed to, he really showed his colors and what he's able to do on the mound. Every start, I think, from the first one on, he's gotten a little bit better. He comes out every game and pounds the zone and really does what he wants to do with the ball."

Lucchesi focuses on keeping himself calm during games, and Mitchell tries to let him work himself out of tight situations. Mitchell will go out to the mound but rarely has to tell him anything specific. Instead, he allows him to take the break he needs to regain his composure. It all really begins with the practices leading up to his start, though.

"I feel more comfortable because when I'm at practice or when I'm in the bullpen I'm just like relaxed because I know I've been practicing really hard, so I know I just need to get in my groove," Lucchesi said. "That's basically what I need to do. Once I get in my groove, then I'm good."

Lucchesi headlines a trio of starters that Bieser is confident in as the regular season winds down and the Redhawks prepare for the OVC tournament, which begins May 20 in Jackson, Tennessee.

Sunday starter Alex Winkelman, who is close behind Lucchesi with a 3.77 ERA, an opponent batting average of .242 and 74 strikeouts, and Saturday starter and defending OVC co-pitcher of the year Travis Hayes need to find some consistency, Bieser said.

"They're trying to be perfect, and neither of them needs to be perfect," Bieser said. "They just need to be good with what they have because their stuff really works, and then be able to throw those consistent pitches. I thought Alex threw the ball pretty good for the most part on Sunday, but he also was pitching behind in the count again, and when he does that the issue is not the performance, the issue is he can't get us deep enough in the game because his pitch count gets too high too early."

Hayes was tapped for eight runs, five earned, on nine hits over 5 1/3 innings against TTU on Saturday, while Winkelman allowed six earned runs on six hits with four walks over 5 2/3 innings against the Golden Eagles on Sunday.

This weekend's three-game series against Indiana State marks the Redhawks' final non-conference games, and the focus is on fine-tuning the starters and figuring out who else is capable of stepping up if they're going to make a run in the tournament.

While the Redhawks (31-17, 20-7 OVC) are out of conference play this weekend, they hold a 3 1/2 game lead in first place and can clinch their second consecutive regular-season title outright with two losses by both Morehead State (30-18, 15-9 OVC) and SIUE (16-25, 15-9 OVC).

Bieser would like to see Winkelman and Hayes gain some confidence over the weekend as well as the bullpen, which has been a concern lately. Bieser has been unable to find a go-to guy to extricate the Redhawks from a jam in the middle of an inning.

Junior Jacob Lawrence proved to be a player that could provide the innings Southeast will need in the conference tournament. The Nixa, Missouri, native and transfer from East Oklahoma State picked up his lone win of the season when he pitched 7 2/3 innings and allowed just three earned runs on six hits in an 8-5 win against No. 21 Missouri on Tuesday night.

He was perfect against the Tigers one time through the batting order and had a one-hit shutout through five innings. He struck out seven and walked none in the outing, which Bieser called "one of the best pitching performances that we've seen all year."

Lawrence could prove critical as senior Garret Stockton, who had been Southeast's midweek starter, remains out with a strained UCL. Stockton is receiving treatment for the strain, and Bieser is hopeful the right-hander will be able to begin playing catch this week. However, he is trying to find other solutions for the postseason in the likelihood Stockton remains unavailable.

"You need that bullpen guy that you can throw one inning, maybe two innings maximum," Bieser said. "We need guys like a Ryan Lenaburg and an Alex Siddle, those guys to be able to throw multiple innings and to throw on multiple days, and then you need that surprise guy that really kind of gets in form this time of the year and can get confidence in his stuff and throw a lot of innings for you."