SEMO Downs EIU in Friday Baseball

Garrett Gandolfo hit a three-run homer in the first inning to provide Southeast Missouri starter Joey Lucchesi all the offense he would need as the Redhawks cruised by Eastern Illinois, 21-1, on Friday afternoon to open a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series.  The two teams will continue the series at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Coaches Stadium.

Lucchesi (5-1) worked eight innings allowing just one EIU run in the eighth inning.  In that frame Caleb Howell had a single and came around to score on a Demetre Taylor single through the left side.  Howell was 2-for-4 for EIU as the Panthers had only seven hits.  Howell now needs five hits to tie for the EIU career hit record as he has 255.

Gandolfo hit the three run blast in the opening inning as the Redhawks scored four in the first.  Two of the four runs in the inning were unearned against Panthers starter Matt Wivinis (1-5) as EIU committed two errors in the inning.

SEMO tacked on two runs in the second inning on a Trevor Ezell home run as the leadoff hitter was 4-for-5 with five runs scored in seven plate appearances.   Clayton Evans drove home two runs in the third as SEMO added six runs.  Gandolfo hit his second home run of the game and Andy Lennington added a solo shot in the frame as SEMO hit five home runs on the day.  Alex Burridge added a three-run homer in the ninth.

EIU used five pitchers on the day as Andrew Grahn, Christian Slazinik, Andy Fisher and Adam Casson all worked on inning after Wivinis pitched five innings. 

Ryan Rippee was 4-for-6 for SEMO while Gandolfo was 3-for-5 with six RBI.

Jason Scholl reached base in the game to extend his streak to 12 straight games of reaching base safely.  Howell’s double earlier in the game extended the senior’s consecutive game hitting streak to ten.

EIU fell to 2-25 on the year, 1-12 in the OVC.  SEMO improved to 20-13, 12-4 in the OVC.