Scott City native Skylar Cobb made his first start of his career on the mound for the Southeast Missouri State University Redhawks. They shutout the Arkansas State Red Wolves 7-0 at Capaha Field on Tuesday, April 1.

"I found out on Sunday I was starting today. We had a great crowd today, great weather, it just all worked out. A great day," Cobb said.

Cobb, who normally appears from the Redhawk bullpen, received the opportunity to start in front of his hometown crowd after coach Steve Bieser needed a reliever to come in and fill a void in his rotation due to injuries.

"I think he's a guy that earned that spot," Bieser said of Cobb. "If you look at what Skylar has done over the last couple years, one thing he does do is he throws strikes and he sets a good tone to start the game off and thats what you want to get the entire team rolling in the right direction."

The entire team was rolling in the right direction behind Cobb on Tuesday night after he sent down the first eight batters he faced before hitting Arkansas State second baseman Eric Wilcoxson with a pitch. Cobb was able to rebound, however, retiring the next batter he faced with a flyout to center field.

The Redhawk offense plated two runs with two outs against Red Wolves' starting pitcher, Bryan Ayers, on three straight walks and 2 RBI singles by Redhawk left fielder, Derek Gibson in the bottom of the third after Cobb's three shutout innings of no-hit ball.

Gibson was one of five Redhawk batters to pick up an RBI in Tuesday night's game, and he was glad the offense could contribute to a special night for Skylar Cobb.

"Skylar Cobb is a bulldog on the mound. He works extremely hard, and you know, a guy like that you want to just do everything you can to put runs on the board, you know, get him some run support. He's just a great guy to play for, a great teammate," Gibson said.

Cobb was pulled by Bieser after three innings to avoid any possible injury since it was his first start of the season and he is used to coming from the bullpen. Bieser brought in Christian Hull who followed up Cobb's pitching performance throwing four shutout innings, allowing only three hits and fanning seven Red Wolves on the night. Relievers Alex Siddle and Greg Mosel finished up the game giving the Redhawks two more innings to complete the shutout.

Pitching wasn't the only highlight of the night for the Redhawks, however, as the they continued their hot hitting as well. First baseman Matt Tellor contributed Tuesday night with two hits, including a double, a walk and a run scored, coming off of a weekend in which he blasted four home runs in four games including three in an 11-1 win over UT Martin on Sunday. He was honored by being named Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week and one of Louisville Slugger's National Players of the Week.

"It means a lot to me, but I mean, it just means a lot to the team. I mean, we came out, played a great weekend, got three wins, and we came out tonight and got another quality win," Tellor said. " I think our team is just playing great all the way around from pitching, to hitting, to fielding. It's just a good feeling out there."

After a double to lead off the sixth inning, the Redhawks played small ball to put another run on the board. Gibson laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved the runner to third, and Redhawk third baseman Andy Lennington was able to drive in the run with a sacrifice fly to right field.

The Redhawks picked up two more runs in the seventh after a leadoff single by catcher Cole Ferguson. Ferguson was then lifted for a pinch runner, John Logan Zinc, and two batters later, another single by center fielder Cole Bieser moved Zinc over to third. A sacrifice fly by leadoff man Jason Blum would drive in Zinc, and an RBI base hit to drive in Bieser from designated hitter Scott Mitchell would cap off the seventh inning run.

Blum and shortstop Andy Lack would add two more RBI singles in the bottom half of the eighth inning to put the Redhawk run total to seven which ended up being more than enough.

The Redhawks have now won four straight, outscoring opponents 40-4 in that span. They are clicking on all cylinders as of now, and Bieser contributes it to the way his team is working together.

"We're to the point in the season where the guys have played together long enough, they trust each other, they understand what each guy is going to do, and the biggest thing that I think is going on right now is they're really communicating up and down the batting order on what to look for," Bieser said.

While Bieser says that the success is coming from the team working well together, the players contribute it to simply having fun.

"It's awesome. It's a great feeling knowing that when your pitcher is shutting another team out that you only have to get one or two runs a game. It's just, it's fun. Playing behind them because you know they're going to get the outs," Tellor said, "It's pitching, hitting, and the bench having a lot of energy, it's just been a lot of fun playing out here."

The Redhawks improve to 18-10 and the Red Wolves fall to 16-13. Southeast will play again Friday, April 4 at 6 p.m. to start a three game OVC series against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at home.