SE Rally Comes Up Shy vs. TAMIU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern clawed back from a 5-1 deficit, but was unable to get over the hump as its rally fell short in a 6-5 loss on Wednesday afternoon at The Ballpark in Durant.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 11-16 overall on the year and ends a stretch of six games in four days.
 
SE will now take a day off before heading to Searcy, Ark., top take on Harding in a three-game series March 18-19.
 
Kaleb Thomas and Brandon Grimsley collected a pair of hits each, while eight others collected one hit apiece.
 
Kaleb Thomas, Grimsley, Corban Taylor, Connor Counce and Luke Thomas each drove in a run.
 
The Storm stranded 10 runners in the game as the teams combined to leave 26 runners on base over the course of the contest.
 
Matt Benedict got the start and tossed three scoreless innings while allowing four hits and striking out five.
 
Cody Luman came on to replace him and was tagged for five unearned runs on three hits on an inning of work, earning him his first loss of the season.
 
Tad Holt would come on for 2.1 innings and allow a run on three hits with a strikeout before Scott Brinkley finished the contest with 2.2 innings of work, allowing no runs on two hits while striking out five.
 
SE took the first lead of the contest on a Counce RBI single to score Grimsley in the second inning for a 1-0 lead.
 
That held till the fourth inning when TAMIU took advantage of an SE error and collected a pair of two out home runs, one a three run shot and the other a two run homer to open up a 5-1 lead.
 
A Kaleb Thomas double in the fifth and a Taylor double in the sixth would each plate a run and trim the deficit to 5-3.
 
Unfortunately, the Dustdevils would pick up a run in the top of the seventh to stretch the lead to 6-3.
 
SE answered with a Luke Thomas RBI single in the eighth and a Grimsley RBI single in the ninth to cut it to one run, but was unable to bring the tying run in, falling 6-5.