Southeast Missouri junior pitcher Alex Winkelman threw a complete game shutout Sunday at Coaches Stadium against the Eastern Baseball team, which earned him Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week.

Winkelman threw nine innings allowing six hits and walked one batter in his first win of the season.

Eastern senior third baseman Brant Valach was the only Panther to figure out Winkelman going 3-for-4 against the Redhawks’ starter.

Winkelman is now 1-2 on the season with a 3.57 earned-run average in 58 innings pitched.

Eastern coach Jimmy Schmitz said Winkleman did a good job of pitching inside to the Panthers’ left handed hitters.

“Our guys are struggling with really good fastballs,” he said. “You got to be able to hit the fastball, and our guys were late on the fastball all weekend. If you can’t hit the fastball, nothing else works.”

Winkelman wasn’t the only Redhawks pitcher to shut down the Eastern offense over the weekend.

Junior Joey Lucchesi threw eight innings Friday and picked him his fifth win of the season in the Redhawks 21-1 victory

Lucchesi is now 5-1 on the season with a 3.63 ERA. He has struck out 49 batters in 44 2/3 innings of work.

The Panthers went 13-for-63 at the plate in the two losses over the weekend Friday and Sunday. In the win Saturday, the Panthers

Eastern was able to figure out Redhawks starter Travis Hayes Saturday in the 9-5 win at Coaches Stadium.

Senior Caleb Howell, senior Brant Valach and red-shirt junior Demetre Taylor make up went a combined 6-for-9 at the plate with two runs batted in and four runs scored.

Eastern knocked out Hayes after 6 1/3 innings after he allowed four earned runs, six total, with two walks and eight hits on the day.

SEMO continues to lead OVC

After winning two of three games against Eastern, the Redhawks continue to stay atop the OVC. The Redhawks are 13-5 in the conference, just one game ahead of second place Belmont.

The Redhawks have also won four of its last six games and scored a combined 40 runs in the four wins.

Southeast Missouri is currently fourth in the conference in batting average with a .299 and leads the conference in ERA with a 4.14.

The Redhawks’ pitchers have thrown 315.1 innings striking out 280 batters while allowing 145 runs and 157 walks.

The Redhawks have the best fielding percentage in the conference, making 29 errors in 35 games played.

The Redhawks have two hitters on their team that are in the OVC top-10 in batting average in senior Andy Lennington and junior Clayton Evans.

Lennington is sixth in the conference in batting average with .382. He has four homers on the season and 25 RBIs

Evans is hitting .367 on the season with four home runs and five doubles.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu