Lucchesi quiets OVC's top offense as Leeper goes yard and Southeast Missouri State baseball drops Morehead State

Nothing went quite as Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser expected to in his team's series opener against Ohio Valley Conference foe Morehead State on Friday.

He thought starting pitcher Joey Lucchesi would need to have his off-speed pitches working to slow down the OVC's top offense and that the Redhawks would see more of a mixture of pitches from MSU starter Luke Humphreys, but both relied primarily on their fastball.

It was Lucchesi, who worked around four Southeast errors, that came out victorious in a battle of two of the league's top pitchers, and Redhawks' third baseman Hunter Leeper provided the run support, blasting a pair of two-run home runs in Southeast's 5-1 win at Capaha Field.

The loss was the first conference loss for the defending OVC tournament champion Eagles, who dropped to 12-5 and 3-1 in the OVC. The Redhawks improved to 11-8 and 4-0 in conference.

"Any OVC win is a big win. You've got to just rack up wins in the OVC," Bieser said. "I thought that we responded pretty well behind Joey again. Joey goes out and I think everybody feels really comfortable when he hits the mound and that we've got a chance to win that day. And we did just enough to win. We played some sloppy defense, but Hunter Leeper comes up with some really big hits and that's the difference in the ballgame."

Southeast Missouri State starter Joey Lucchesi pitches to a Morehead State batter during the third inning Friday, March 18, 2016 at Capaha Field. FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com

Neither team recorded a hit the first four innings of the game. The Redhawks got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when senior shortstop Branden Boggetto drew a leadoff walk and then advanced all the way to third on a failed pickoff attempt by Humphreys, before scoring on a sacrifice fly by senior left fielder Garrett Gandolfo.

Leeper made it a 3-0 Redhawks' lead when he sent a 3-2 pitch just inside the foul pole in left for his first home run of the season. Catcher Brian Lees, who led off the inning with a walk and was bunted to second by second baseman Andy Lack, also scored on the two-out shot in the home half of the fifth.

The Eagles got a run back in the top of the next frame, but Leeper extended the lead again in the bottom of the seventh.

Lees led off the inning with a double down the left-field line and was bunted to third by Lack.

MSU went to its bullpen for Craig Pearcy to face Leeper, but again he sent a two-out home run to left for the final score.

"In my first AB [at-bat] I hit a ball out over the plate [and flew out]," Leeper said. "My second AB I got two strikes on me and they pounded me in and I struck out looking on an inside pitch, so my next at-bat I wanted to make that adjustment. I figured they were going to try to do the same thing. I was lucky enough to get the barrel to the ball. I was just trying to get the barrel to the ball."

Leeper, who entered the week with a .188 batting average, said he's tried to focus on a few adjustments when he's at the plate.

"I'm just staying looser," Leeper said. "I have more confidence in myself. My batting stance, where my hands are, it's all working for me right now. I'm seeing the ball well."

His 2-for-4 day against MSU makes him 6 for 10 with seven RBIs in his last three games; he went 4 for 6 in two midweek games against Missouri with a pair of doubles.

Southeast Missouri State left fielder Garrett Gandolfo hauls in a Morehead State fly ball during the fifth inning Friday, March 18, 2016 at Capaha Field.FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com

"Hunter's a gamer," Bieser said. "He's a streaky guy and when he gets hot he gets hot, and that's what we see right now. He's on a really good streak. He's hit some really good pitching. To hit the Friday night guy here in the OVC and to hit the SEC pitching -- it's not a fluke. He's locked in right now and swinging the bat really well and the thing about Hunter is when he's not swinging the bat well, he's still finding ways on base and does a really good job on base and doing all the little things for us to help us win."

Humphreys (3-1) suffered his first loss on the mound. He went five innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on one hit with six walks and a strikeout.

Lucchesi improved to 4-1. He pitched eight innings, allowing one earned run on three hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts.

His only blemish was a solo home run to cleanup hitter Will Schneider in the sixth.

"I would say I was on top of my game," said Lucchesi, noting Schneider's blast was an inside fastball that he left up. "I had one mistake, the home run, but it didn't really affect me, so I just got back in the game and did my thing."

Bieser was impressed with his lefty's ability to escape with little damage with four Redhawks' errors during his outing and without being able to work his off-speed as well as he's capable of.

"Watching from the side I didn't think he had his best stuff again," Bieser said. "We've got to get him going with his breaking stuff. But he's able to make the big pitches when he needs to make them and that's the difference. When a guy doesn't quite have his best stuff you can tell he's a good pitcher whenever he's able to get out of situations and control a game. I say he didn't throw well and he gives up three hits and one run, but I've just seen Joey better and I know he can throw better than what he showed today, and we're going to keep working on it until we see everything look really good."

In the third, with no score, Lack couldn't field a ground ball to second with two outs and a runner on, but Lucchesi got out of it with a strikeout.

First baseman Ryan Rippee misplayed a bouncer to first that skipped far enough away that the runner reached second on the error with one out, but a groundout and strikeout erased the damage.

The final two errors came with one out in the eighth. A ball went through Leeper's legs and then Boggetto dropped what would've been an inning-ending double play ball. But Lucchesi's final strikeout and a foul out ended it.

"I try to discipline myself," Lucchesi said. "I know my infielders aren't trying to do that on purpose so I just treat it like nothing and just get back in the zone because what can I do, you know? It's over."

Justin Murphy pitched a scoreless ninth. He issued a leadoff walk but nothing else to secure the win.

"We've just got to clean up defense," Bieser said. "We've got to play better defense, understanding that causes the pitcher to throw more pitches, causes us to use more pitchers early in the series. If we play better defense Joey can throw a complete game today and that was kind of the disappointing part in this game. But anytime you can pick up a win against a good club like Morehead then you've got to be happy."

The Redhawks and Eagles are slated to play Game 2 at 2 p.m. Saturday.