INDIANS ENCOUNTER MISSOURI, SIU AGAIN

Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team will have a chance to salvage a split with one regional rival and complete a sweep of another this week.

Today, the Indians will be in Columbia, Mo., for a 6 p.m. game against the University of Missouri Tigers. Then Southeast will return home for a 3 p.m. Wednesday contest against the Southern Illinois Salukis.

Earlier this month, the Indians lost to the Tigers 7-2 in Cape Girardeau and knocked off the Salukis 11-5 in Carbondale, Ill.

"They should be two good ballgames," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "Missouri handled us pretty well at our place earlier and we did the same to SIU at their place, but that probably won't mean much this time. Every game is different so you don't know what to expect."

The Indians, who took two out of three games at Ohio Valley Conference foe Tennessee-Martin over the weekend, are 25-13 overall and 8-4 in OVC play, which has them in third place in the eight-team league. Southeast has won 16 of its past 20 games.

Missouri is 21-16-1 overall and 8-13 in Big 12 Conference play as the Tigers have slumped recently. When the Tigers visited Capaha Field two weeks ago, they were in the midst of a stretch that saw them win 17 of 21 games. But since then, they have lost five of six.

SIU, which has struggled most of the season after losing three of its top pitchers to academic ineligibility before the campaign even started, is 13-24-1 overall and 8-13 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Salukis have dropped nine of their past 12 games.

Unlike what takes place during most mid-week, non-conference games, Southeast should be able to use some of its top pitchers today and Wednesday because the Indians have no OVC contests scheduled for this weekend, or any other action for that matter.

Indian numbers

Clemento Bonilla continues to lead the OVC with a .435 batting average and he has a phenomenal .595 on-base percentage, thanks not only to his hitting but his 40 walks. The junior second baseman is already Southeast's career leader in walks and he could end up breaking his own single-season record of 53, set during his freshman campaign.

But the Indians' biggest offensive surprise this season has got to be true freshman Brad Beatty, who was thrust into the role of designated hitter very early in the year and has never let go of it. A recent hot streak has lifted his batting average to .358, which is now second on the squad behind Bonilla.

"For a freshman, Brad is just having a tremendous season," Hogan said. "He's been a real pleasant surprise for us. And he got off to kind of a slow start. Since then, he's probably got to be batting .450 or so."

A hot stretch for Denver Stuckey has lifted the sophomore third basesman from Kelly High School to .315, which is fourth on the team behind sophomore shortstop Zach Borowiak (.340).

Borowiak's 32 runs batted in are second on the Indians behind senior catcher Jeff Bourbon's 33. Bonilla and junior center fielder Vern Hatton are tied for the team lead in home runs with five. Bourbon and Stuckey both have four.

In the pitching department, Todd Pennington's unbelievable season continues. A shutout of Tennessee-Martin over the weekend has lowered the junior right-hander's earned-run average to 1.07, which just might vault him to the top of the nation's Division I hurlers when the NCAA statistics are released this week.

Pennington, a Shawnee (Ill.) High School product, had the nation's third-lowest ERA last week. He is 7-1 and has allowed just 30 hits in 59 innings, with 74 strikeouts and 26 walks.

Reliever Jeffrey Hilz, last year's OVC Rookie of the Year, has also been on quite a roll recently, lowering his ERA to 3.00 after it was above five early in the season. Hilz, 5-1, has allowed 24 hits in 36 innings, with 50 strikeouts and 15 walks.

EIU sets hot pace

Even though the Indians have won all four of their OVC series to date -- taking two out of three games each time -- they continue to lose ground on Eastern Illinois, which is setting a torrid pace.

The Panthers, picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll, surprisingly swept a three-game series at preseason favorite Austin Peay over the weekend as they improved to 11-0 in the league.

"Eastern Illinois is just playing tremendous baseball and you have to hand it to them," said Hogan.

Tennessee Tech (7-2) is in second place and just one-half game ahead of Southeast. Tech visits Eastern Illinois this weekend for a crucial series.