Southeastern beats UNO to force deciding game for Southland title series spot

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HAMMOND, La. – No. 2 Southeastern made history with a run-rule victory over No. 3 New Orleans by a score of 25-3 Saturday night at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in game six of the Southland Baseball Tournament Hammond Bracket.

The Lions (27-28) forced a decisive game seven while breaking the Southland Tournament runs in a single game, runs scored in a single inning, RBIs in a game, and tying the tournament homerun record. Southeastern’s 25 runs broke the Southland tournament record for single-game scoring, set by Texas State back in 2008 with 22.

Hunter O’Toole (3-4) picked up the win after tossing a 6.2 innings, allowing four runs on 10 hits while striking out five.

The Lions plated each of their first five runs via walk or hit by pitch and really got the offense going with a pair of RBI singles in the third. Southeastern put up a five-spot in the fifth, beginning with a two-run home run off the bat of Southland home run leader Preston Faulkner.

On an RBI single to lead off a tournament record scoring output of 12 runs in the sixth inning, Faulkner matched the conference tournament record for RBI (12) and drove in Evan Keller, who matched the tournament record for runs scored (12).

In his next trip to the plate in the same frame, Keller broke his own record with a three-run shot to blow the lead open to 16-3. Shea Thomas and Tyler Finke’s back-to-back blasts in the inning set the single-game RBI record in the conference tournament (22) and tied the team tournament homeruns record with 15.

Southeastern will face New Orleans (30-22) Sunday at 1 p.m. in a winner-take-all showdown for a spot in the Southland Baseball Championship Series May 26-28 in Lake Charles, La.

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HAMMOND BRACKET SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Game 1 (1 p.m.) – No. 3 New Orleans 10, No. 6 HBU 3

Game 2 (6 p.m.) – No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6, No. 2 Southeastern 5

Friday, May 20, 2022

Game 3 (1 p.m.) – No. 2 Southeastern 12, N. 6 HBU 4

Game 4 (6 p.m.) – No. 3 New Orleans 10, No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 9

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Game 5 (1 p.m.) – No. 2 Southeastern 18, No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 11

Game 6 (6 p.m.) – No. 2 Southeastern 25, No. 3 New Orleans 4

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Game 7 (1 p.m.) – No. 3 New Orleans vs. No. 2 Southeastern (ESPN+)