Southeast Missouri State baseball team sweeps series vs. Morehead State with walk-off walk

As Southeast Missouri State senior left fielder Garrett Gandolfo stood in the Redhawks' dugout at Capaha Field with his teammates batting in the bottom of a crazy 10th inning with the game tied, the only thing that crossed his mind was victory.

That feeling, that Southeast was going to come from behind and defeat Morehead State to sweep the series, came over him in the sixth inning, and stuck with him as the Redhawks clawed their way back to tie it in the seventh and again in the ninth to send it to extra innings for the second consecutive day.

And he had the perfect view when his intuition was proved true as senior first baseman Ryan Rippee drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the 10th to give the Redhawks a 6-5 walk-off victory over the Eagles.

"We just have a resilient ballclub," Gandolfo said. "Just a bunch of guys who are tough."

Gandolfo's sense that Southeast would be victorious came shortly after coach Steve Bieser gathered his players outside of the dugout after the top of the fifth inning, where MSU had extended its lead to 4-1 with help from Southeast's second error of the day.

The Redhawks got one base runner on an error in the bottom half of the inning, but nothing else. Starting pitcher Robert Beltran, who went seven innings and allowed four runs -- two earned -- on six hits with three walks and eight strikeouts, retired the Eagles in order in the sixth.

Southeast Missouri State's Chris Caffrey comes up at third base after tripling to left centerfield against Morehead State during the sixth inning Sunday, March 20, 2016 at Capaha Field. Caffrey later scored when Dan Holst grounded out to second.Fred Lynch

Southeast scratched out a run in the home half of the inning. Third baseman Chris Caffrey led off with a triple to deep center and scored on a groundout to cut it to 4-2.

"I think right after we were a little timid and trying to figure things out," Bieser said of the team meeting, "but then I think the following inning after they started settling in and understanding exactly what I was saying and the challenges that I presented to them that, 'There's still enough game here if they decide to turn it around and play the way that they know how to play,' and they were able to pull it out.

"They're just a group of guys that they expect to win but sometimes maybe they just think it's going to happen magically, and whenever they really start focusing and making things happen and working hard to make things happen, good things usually happen."

Southeast senior right fielder Hunter Leeper and senior shortstop Branden Boggetto hit back-to-back singles to left to start the seventh and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch.

Rippee and Gandolfo both struck out before the Eagles brought in right-handed reliever Craig Pearcy to face the right-handed hitting Caffrey, who'd already gone 3 for 3 on the day.

Caffrey sent a 2-2 pitch into right for his fourth hit of the day to score two runs and knot it at 4-4.

"I knew they were going to probably throw some offspeed in there, so I got two strikes on me and I kind of had to take what they gave me," Caffrey said. "The coaches really preach to be competitive here, so I just had to compete."

Southeast Missouri State's Chris Caffrey heads to third base on a failed pickoff attempt at second by the Morehead State pitcher during the second inning Sunday, March 20, 2016 at Capaha Field.Fred Lynch

The score remained the same until the top of the ninth.

MSU third baseman Alex Stephens sent a one-out single up the middle before the Redhawks turned to closer Justin Murphy.

Stephens stole second before Murphy walked shortstop Reid Leonard and hit catcher Jimmy Wright with a pitch to load the bases with two outs.

A passed ball skipped to the right of catcher Brian Lees and Stephens raced home to score the go-ahead run while Murphy failed to cover the plate.

The Redhawks compensated for the miscue with a run in the bottom of the inning.

Boggetto, who hit a walk-off home run against MSU on Saturday, sent the first pitch he saw from MSU closer Tyler Keele into center field. He stole second and scored when Gandolfo sent a one-out pitch into left to tie it at 5-5. Gandolfo executed a delayed steal, but was stranded.

"I wasn't thinking much, just be short, get a pitch over the middle," Gandolfo said. "I knew I was going to get a couple of fastballs with a guy like that. He's going to throw you heat. When Getto stole, I knew I was going to get another fastball. He was going to challenge me with another fastball. Just put a good swing on it. It's baseball. There's seven guys out there, just find a hole."

Murphy struck out the side in the top of the 10th to set up the Redhawks' wild ending.

Lees drew a leadoff walk to bring up designated hitter Chris Osborne, who bunted toward the first-base side of the mound on a 2-0 count. Osborne reached for a hit when second baseman Braxton Morris, on his way to cover first, ran into the umpire. Both runners moved into scoring position when the throw to first got away.

"That's why it's crazy because we had the fake bunt on there because it was a 2-0 count and I would've preferred to take the walk and have first and second," Bieser said with a grin. "Fake bunt and he bunts anyway, so it worked out in our favor. It was just one of those games that late in the game we were just finding ways that things were happening for our benefit without really earning them because we shouldn't have bunted the ball right there."

Second baseman Trevor Ezell was intentionally walked and the Redhawks brought in Daniel Costello to pinch run for Lees at third. Leeper flew out to shallow left and Costello was thrown out at home for a double play.

Ezell and Osborne then moved to second and third on a wild pitch, and the Eagles elected to intentionally walk Boggetto to reload the bases for Rippee, who'd struck out in his previous four at-bats.

Rippee worked a 3-0 count and took a strike before drawing the walk-off walk.

Keele (1-1) took the loss, allowing two earned runs on three hits with four walks and two strikeouts.

Murphy improved to 2-2 after pitching 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings with a walk and four strikeouts.

"It was a crazy inning," Bieser said. "I did think we had a really good chance getting to [Keele] coming back out for the second inning. He showed really good command in the first inning, but history has shown that he can struggle with the strikes. We thought if we could be patient, but also if he throws something in the heart of the plate, if we can attack it and put a good swing on the ball and put a line drive in there, now he gets a little more timid to come in the strike zone and he starts trying to nibble and all of a sudden he's going to get himself in trouble. With Boggetto stepping up there and doing that in the ninth inning of hitting the ball right back up the middle, now he starts nibbling a little bit and gets us in a situation where we can do that."

MSU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning before Ezell evened it with a leadoff home run to right in the bottom half. The Eagles added a pair of runs in the third on one hit, an error and a walk before taking their largest lead at 4-1 in the fifth.

Southeast, which committed three errors in the game and 10 in the three-game series, improved to 13-8 and 6-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference with the sweep.

"Well, that we got lucky," Bieser said he of what he hopes the team takes away from the series. "You've got to play better baseball than that to sweep series. Yeah, you can win some games with having a bad game, but to consistently win games the way that we want to win games, we can't play the way that we've played the last two days with the errors and non-execution offensively -- it comes back to get you. We've got to clean it up, and as a coaching staff we're going to take a big part of the blame that we've got to find better ways to get these guys prepared. It's been a tough stretch because we haven't been able to practice. We play Tuesday, Wednesday and then we go right into the weekend series the last two weeks, and we probably need some practices here to get some things squared away."

Southeast hosts Harris-Stowe at 5 p.m. Tuesday before traveling to UT Martin for a three-game conference series starting Thursday night.

"I'm excited moving forward," Caffrey said. "I think we've seen some of the things we need to fix and we're going to work on them. But at the end of the day we got wins, and we've got to be excited about that."