Coaches pick Southeast to finish fourth in OVC

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team has been picked to finish fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference this season, based on voting by the league's head coaches.

Jacksonville State, which finished second in both the regular season and OVC tournament last year, was tabbed the preseason favorite in the 10-team conference Tuesday.

Jacksonville State received 76 points and four first-place votes. The Gamecocks return 15 letterwinners, including senior outfielder Clay Whittemore, the OVC preseason player of the year who batted .391 with 63 RBIs for last year's 33-27 squad.

Defending OVC regular-season and tournament champion Austin Peay narrowly missed out on being the favorite, as the Governors received 74 points and five first-place votes.

The Govs, 40-22 overall and 19-8 in OVC play a year ago, lost six position starters and three starting pitchers, but they return three preseason all-conference picks.

Eastern Kentucky received the final first-place vote and 61 points for third in the preseason poll. The Colonels are led by preseason OVC pitcher of the year Christian Friedrich, who went 5-4 with a 2.09 ERA. Like Whittemore, Friedrich is a preseason All-American.

Southeast received 59 points. The Redhawks, 32-24 overall and a third-place 16-10 in the OVC last season, return 17 letterwinners under coach Mark Hogan, who has led Southeast to the OVC tournament in each of his first 13 seasons, the longest active stretch among OVC schools.

The Redhawks have three players on the preseason all-conference team -- sophomore catcher Jim Klocke, junior first baseman Matt Wagner and senior pitcher Dustin Renfrow.

Klocke earned OVC freshman of the year honors last season after hitting .324 while striking out only 13 times in 179 official at-bats. Wagner batted .318 with seven homers and 42 RBIs, while Renfrow went 5-1 with a 2.46 ERA.

Samford was picked to finish fifth, followed by Eastern Illinois, Murray State, Tennessee Tech, Morehead State and Tennessee-Martin.

All 10 OVC baseball squads begin their seasons either Friday or Saturday. Southeast opens Friday with a 6 p.m. contest at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the start of a four-game series.

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Preseason poll

(first place votes and total points)

1. Jacksonville State (4) 76

2. Austin Peay (5) 74

3. Eastern Kentucky (1) 61

4. SE MISSOURI 59

5. Samford 55

6. Eastern Illinois 38

7. Murray State 30

8. Tennessee Tech 29

9. Morehead State 15

10. UT Martin 13

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Preseason All-OVC team

** C: Jim Klocke, SE MISSOURI %

1B: Matt Wagner, SE MISSOURI

2B: Bert Smith, Jacksonville State *

SS: Michael Marseco, Samford *

3B: Tyler Farrar, Austin Peay #

OF: Clay Whittemore, Jacksonville State *

OF: Jake New, Tennessee Tech #

OF: Brett Nommensen, Eastern Illinois

OF: Rafael Hill, Austin Peay #

DH: Jay Harrington, Jacksonville State

UTIL: Richie Derbak, Eastern Illinois #%

SP: Christian Friedrich, Eastern Kentucky *

SP: Dustin Renfrow, SE MISSOURI #

SP: Ryne Mantooth, Austin Peay

RP: Alex Jones, Jacksonville State #

Preseason player of the year: Clay Whittemore, Jacksonville State

Preseason pitcher of the year: Christian Friedrich, Eastern Kentucky

(* -- 1st team all-OVC in 2007; # -- 2nd team all-OVC team in 2007; % -- OVC all-freshman team in 2007)