Familiar faces peppered the opposing dugout when the Redhawk Baseball team visited nationally-ranked Mizzou on Tuesday.
Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser took over the helm of the Tigers program last summer, after four years as head coach at his alma mater Southeast Missouri State – during which he won three consecutive Ohio Valley Conference championships.
Joining Bieser in the Tigers dugout were assistant coach Lance Rhodes, a himself SEMO baseball alumnus and former Redhawks pitching coach, as well as two other former assistants in Dillon Lawson and Joe Migliaccio.
Bieser and the staff had helped the Mizzou program get off to one of the hottest starts in the country, which included a nation-long 20-game winning streak that had was snapped last week – the second longest winning streak in Mizzou Baseball history. Coming into the game Tuesday, the Tigers boasted a 21-3 record.
Meanwhile, the Redhawks dugout was full of student-athletes who all had either played for, or had been recruited by, Coach Bieser, and they were motivated to get a win against their former coaches.
Thanks to a four-run fifth inning and a gutsy performance out of the bullpen by senior pitcher Clay Chandler – usually the Redhawks Friday-night starter – Southeast picked up a 6-5 victory over the Tigers in Columbia. The Redhawks have now beaten the Tigers four out of the last six times they’ve played.
The SEMO Baseball team returns home this weekend for a three-game series against Austin Peay. The series starts tonight at 6 p.m., and the game will feature a free tailgate and fish fry sponsored by Kohlfeld Distributing.
In other action on campus this weekend, the track & field team will host its only home meet of the year – action will start at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The softball team will also host its home opener, a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Admission to all the events this weekend is free.
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