College baseball: Dixon grad Payton Lawrence, SEMO play in NCAAs Friday

As a senior at Dixon High School, Payton Lawrence was the ace that helped pitch the Dukes to the state semifinals in 2019.

Now a senior at Southeast Missouri State University, he and the Redhawks will be playing the NCAA regional host and national No. 5 seed Arkansas at 2 p.m. Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The regional is a double-elimination format.

The game can be seen on ESPN+.

SEMO won the Ohio Valley Conference title to qualify with a 34-25 record.

Lawrence got his first save of the season in the Redhawks’ 9-6 win over Morehead State to win the conference, pitching three innings of one-hit baseball to hold on for the championship. He finished the game with his fourth strikeout.

Lawrence is second on the team with a 4.17 earned run average this season, going 2-1 over 21 appearances and six starts. He’s struck out 50 batters in 41 innings pitched this season.

The righty played his first two years at Black Hawk College where he was a two-time NJCAA All-American starting pitcher.

His younger brother, Brady, recently finished his sophomore season for the Dixon baseball team.