Tulane- No. 1 on the schedule

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team will have a chance to make a statement right off the bat this season.

The first opponent also happens to be the No. 1 team in the nation in one preseason poll.

Southeast will open its season Feb. 11 with the first game of a three-game, three-day series in New Orleans against Tulane, which was listed as the top team this week when Baseball America released its preseason poll.

"I was stunned," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said Thursday when reached at a college baseball coaches convention in Tennessee. "We had started doing our homework on them, and we knew they were going to be loaded, but I didn't realize they were projected No. 1. They are in the upper echelon, for sure."

The Green Wave, which was 41-21 last year and made the NCAA Super Regional, was listed No. 4 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's poll, which was published in late December. ESPN/USA Today and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association also conduct polls but have not yet released 2005 preseason polls.

Tulane, which had its season ended in the NCAA tournament by eventual national champion Cal State Fullerton, returns seven of its top nine hitters and four of its top five pitchers. In addition, the program's recruiting class ranks in the top five, and the newcomers include Micah Owings, who was an All-American in 2003 at Georgia Tech.

The No. 1 ranking is a first for Tulane, which also will be opening its season with the Feb. 11 contest. Hogan said he doesn't recall the Southeast program, which has made a habit of playing elite teams, ever taking on a No. 1 club.

"It's a thrill," Hogan said. "One of the special things about the deal is we're the first club that has a chance to go against them. I don't think I have to say a lot to motivate our guys.

"The good thing about playing a big club early, they've got jitters. This will be their first at-bats, and they've got to go out and earn their stripes again. I have no misconceptions about their talent. On paper, they've got most of their ballclub back, and then they add Micah Owings, who is a heck of a player."

Southeast plans to begin practice on Wednesday. Hogan has a positive outlook for Southeast, which finished 29-28 last year and lost in the final round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

While football and basketball teams would be able to devise a game plan tailored for its opposition, the Southeast baseball team will not prepare for the opening series in the same fashion.

"There's not a lot of tape in college baseball," Hogan said. "You can look at the statistics, and that will tell you a little bit. In baseball, it's more about what you have and how you execute. The big thing for us will be how we handle their pitching."

Getting a win out of the series would be big for Southeast, which was 1-10 against teams from the SEC and Big 12 conferences last year.

"It'd be a huge boost, probably more for the psyche of our players," Hogan said.

Southeast is no stranger to big-time games with two NCAA tournament appearances -- 1998 and 2002. In the first tournament appearance, Southeast lost to a Wichita State team that was 55-5 and ranked No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper at the end of the regular season.

Lessening the load

After playing 11 games against Big 12 and SEC teams last year, Southeast has knocked a few of those big-time programs off its schedule this year to keep the team from having a large in imbalance of road games.

Southeast traded in trips to Oklahoma, Alabama and Oklahoma State for a slate that will include a trip to Southeastern Louisiana and home dates with Bradley and South Dakota State. Southeast beat Oklahoma State, which is No. 23 in Baseball America's preseason poll this year, last season for its only win against SEC and Big 12 opponents.

Southeast plays three games at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., Feb. 25 through Feb. 27 before coming home to play St. Louis University in the home opener on March 2.

Another major nonconference road trip for the season is a two-game set March 15 and 16 at the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss, 35-24 last year, is listed at No. 16 in the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason polls.

Hogan said the schedule change was dictated more by trying to get home dates since Southeast this year travels to Southwest Missouri State and plays four OVC series at home and five on the road.

"When we play those nonconference schools, we've got to do the dirty work," Hogan said in reference to making the road trips. "We want to give our fans a chance to see our team and give our boys a chance to play at home, too."