INDIAN HURLERS PITCH IN ON GEM

Strong pitching has been the early season theme for Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team and that trend continued Thursday afternoon.

In their first home game since Feb. 11, the Indians got a combined one-hitter from four hurlers as they rolled past Harris-Stowe 8-0 in front of 155 fans at Capaha Field.

The Indians improved to 7-4 while the Hornets, an NAIA squad from St. Louis, fell to 5-3.

Southeast entered the contest with an impressive team earned-run average of 3.24, which looks even better considering the Indians have faced a rugged schedule featuring the likes of nationally ranked South Alabama along with Mississippi of the Southeastern Conference.

"You look at the clubs we've played, and to have that kind of ERA, it's exceptional," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "This staff I think will threaten a lot of the (school) records, like our offense did last year."

Greg Lunksi worked the first four innings, striking out three and walking two.

A win at last

Tommy Thomas (1-2) hurled the next two innings in perfect fashion and received credit for the victory, which was probably fitting since he'd suffered two earlier losses despite having an ERA of less than 1.00.

Brandon Smith worked the next two frames and allowed Harris-Stowe's lone hit, a clean single to left by George White leading off the top of the eighth inning.

White is a Jackson High School product, having graduated in the early 1990s. He then played some junior-college ball and also later competed for the Cape Girardeau Capahas before resurfacing in the collegiate ranks this year. His twin brother Robert, also a Jackson graduate, is an assistant coach with the Hornets.

Mike Robinson, seeing his first action of the season, finished off the one-hit shutout for the Indians by hurling a perfect ninth.

"I thought they all threw well," Hogan said. "Mike Robinson is coming off surgery and it was good to get him out there for the first time."

Southeast's 10-hit offensive attack was led by third baseman Denver Stuckey with three to go along with three runs scored and two runs batted in.

First home run

Stuckey, a sophomore out of Kelly High School who has been on a recent tear, also belted his first collegiate home run, a line shot leading off the eighth that just hooked inside the left-field foul pole.

"It was a thrill," said a grinning Stuckey. "I wasn't worried too much about it (not having hit any previous homers) because I'm not a home run hitter. But I'm not going to lie. It was nice to see it leave the yard."

Two other Indians who have also been hot in recent weeks, shortstop Zach Borowiak and catcher Jeff Bourbon, each had two hits as they both increased their hitting streaks to 11 games.

Borowiak, who entered the contest batting .432, had two doubles and two RBIs as he boosted his team lead in the latter category to 15. Bourbon also had two RBIs, giving him 115 for his career as he is now in sixth place all-time at Southeast in that department.

While Southeast's offense has been a bit slow to come around this season -- as was expected -- it appears to be making steady progress.

"Our offense has been up and down, but it's early in the season and I think we're getting better," said second baseman Clemente Bonilla, who entered Thursday's game with a team-leading .516 batting average and added a hit against the Hornets.

While Southeast's pitching has thrived through 11 games, so has the Indians' defense, which did not make an error Thursday and came up with a handful of sparkling plays, including two by Borowiak, one by Stuckey, one by Vern Hatton in center field and one by Brice Nicholas in right.

"Our defense has been outstanding and we put on a pretty good show today," Hogan said. "Our offense is still struggling as a group and we need that to come around."

While the Indians did not have an error, Harris-Stowe helped out with a whopping seven miscues, although White did make two impressive stops at first base.

After a scoreless first three innings, the Indians broke through with a run in the fourth and then began to pull away. They got two in the fifth, three in the sixth and two more in the eighth.

* Chad Jones, a Cape Central High School product, is a freshman with the Hornets but he did not see action Thursday.