CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.- The University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team fell 9-5 in the series finale to Southeast Missouri this afternoon.
 
Zac Rice (two hits, two runs scored) and Mac Danford each cranked solo homers today while Andrew Fernandez drove in three runs and reached base safely three times (double, two walks). Jalen Fithian and Cameron Brady also scored once apiece for the Skyhawks (20-34, 12-15 Ohio Valley Conference).
 
Jeb Bartle made the Sunday start while Baylor Jones (1.1 innings pitched), Brock Arender (2-3, 0.2 frames), Tucker Reed (2.1 innings pitched, four strikeouts) and Kaleb Baskin (one shutout inning) all made relief appearances today.
 
Bartle struck out a pair of batters in a scoreless first inning and followed that with another shutout frame in the second.
 
Rice sent an 0-2 pitch over the wall in left field to break the scoreless tie in the top of the third, giving UT Martin a 1-0 lead. Southeast Missouri (31-24, 18-9 Ohio Valley Conference) responded with four runs in the home half to take its first advantage of the contest.
 
The Redhawks posted one run in the fourth but the Skyhawks were able to tie the score with a big top of the fifth. Brady (walk), Rice (single) and Fithian (hit by pitch) loaded the bases with no outs before Fernandez lined a double to left field, clearing the bases and making it a one-run game in the process. Two batters later, Danford blasted his team-best 15^th long ball to level the score at 5-all.
 
However, Southeast Missouri scored twice in the fifth, once in the sixth and once in the seventh. Baskin put an end to the scoring with a clean inning in the eighth.
 
UT Martin got two runners on in the top of the ninth as pinch hitter Frank Micallef and Fernandez were both issued walks but it ultimately wasn't enough.
 
The Skyhawks will enter the OVC Baseball Championship presented by SERVPRO as the No. 8 seed, facing No. 5 seed Tennessee Tech on Wednesday, May 22 at 9 a.m. in Marion, Ill.