BILLIKENS SQUEAK OUT ANOTHER ONE-RUN WIN OVER SOUTHEAST 10-9

Southeast Missouri State University's Indians are having a much better baseball season than the St. Louis Billikens -- but you wouldn't know it by the two games the teams have played against each other this season.

SLU captured its second one-run victory over Southeast Wednesday night as the Billikens squeezed out a highly entertaining 10-9 non-conference win in front of nearly 1,100 fans at Capaha Field.

The Billikens, who beat Southeast 5-4 on April 12 in St. Louis, are now 18-29. The Indians fell to 30-13.

"I don't really know why their record isn't better than it is, but they seem to play really well against us," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "As far as I'm concerned, they've got a good ballclub."

Said SLU coach Bob Hughes, "We've had two good ballgames with them. We'd lost five in row and we needed this one. It's a good win for us."

SLU took an entirely different approach to scoring its runs than did Southeast. The Billikens had 15 hits -- all but two of them singles -- and they also benefited from seven walks handed out by six Indian pitchers.

The Indians had nine hits -- six going for extra bases and four leaving the park -- but received just one walk.

Darin Kinsolving belted a pair of home runs, giving him 13 on the season, while Jeremy Johnson also hit his 13th and Phil Warren delivered his third. Kinsolving and Johnson are tied for second in the Ohio Valley Conference long-ball race, one behind teammate Charlie Marino.

Kinsolving went 3-for-5 and drove in five runs. Johnson added two hits while Warren had two RBIs.

Jim Bredenkoetter and Brian Haddock paced SLU's attack with three hits apiece. Adam Shea, John McLaughlin and Brandon Shockley each added two hits while Bredenkoetter, Shea, McLaughlin and Kurt Evans all had two RBIs.

"Our display of power was very impressive," Hogan said. "We've hit a lot of home runs this season (70), but lately we haven't really had the flurry of homers like we'd had earlier. It was nice to see us get that going.

"But our pitchers walked too many. We gave them too much, and they took advantage of it. We played good enough defense to win."

Both teams, in fact, were solid defensively for the most part. Southeast did not commit an error while SLU had only one miscue.

Southeast took an early 3-0 lead, getting a two-run Kinsolving homer to right in the first inning and an RBI single by Denver Stuckey in the second.

SLU erupted for five runs in the fourth to chase both Southeast starter Andy Davidson and reliever Brandon Smith. Evans had a go-ahead, two-run single.

The Billikens plated three more in the sixth off Todd Pennington to go up 8-3. Kinsolving's two-run blast to dead center in the sixth pulled the Indians to within 8-5 and set the stage for an exciting finish.

Still trailing 8-5 heading into the eighth, the Indians had a three-run rally to tie things, using three hits and a key SLU error. Kinsolving had an RBI single and Warren ripped a two-run homer to left-center, his first round-tripper since recently returning from an injury that forced him to miss a month of the season.

Neither squad scored in the ninth, forcing extra innings. SLU broke the tie in the 10th off Lanson Debrock (9-4), who usually starts but was getting in a little mid-week work. Bredenkoetter singled in a run and Shea walked to force in another run.

Southeast made it interesting in the bottom of the 10th off SLU flame-throwing reliever Wes Jaillet as Johnson rocketed a one-out homer way over the right-field fence to make it 10-9.

But Jaillet (4-5) wound up fanning the side to nail down the victory, giving him five strikeouts in the two innings he pitched.

"He's got that kind of stuff," Hughes said. "We're just trying to get him to be more consistent."

SLU starter Ryan Warnecke hurled the first eight innings, allowing eight hits and eight runs while fanning five and walking one.

Southeast's most effective hurler was relief ace Jeffrey Hilz, the Indians' fifth pitcher. Hilz worked three spotless innings, walking one while fanning six as he lowered his OVC-leading earned-run average to 1.81.

The only other Southeast pitcher who did not allow a run was Augie Casson (1 1/3 innings, three hits).

Davidson (three innings, five hits, four runs), Smith (2/3 of an inning, one hit, one run), Pennington (one inning, four hits, three runs) and Debrock (one inning, two hits, two runs) all were reached by the Billikens.

Southeast will now turn its attention back to OVC play as the Indians visit Tennessee Tech this weekend for a three-game series. The Indians are tied for second in the league at 13-4 as they and Middle Tennessee trail 15-3 Eastern Kentucky.