INDIANS GO DIRECTOY TO OVC SEMIS

The pairings are now set for the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament that will be played Thursday through Saturday at Capaha Field.

Regular-season champion Eastern Kentucky will join host Southeast Missouri State University, Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay, Murray State and Eastern Illinois in the six-team event that is being played in Cape Girardeau for the third straight year.

Eastern Kentucky, by virtue of Sunday's 11-4 victory over Southeast, nosed out the Indians and Middle Tennessee for its first OVC regular-season title since 1989. As a result, the Colonels who finished one-half game ahead of the Indians and Raiders are seeded first for the tournament.

Southeast, because it won two of three games against Middle Tennessee during the regular season, earned the No. 2 seed, which is important, because it means a first-round bye.

Middle Tennessee is seeded third, followed by Austin Peay, Murray State and Eastern Illinois.

By virtue of gaining a first-round bye, Eastern Kentucky (29-25 overall, 18-6 OVC) and Southeast (35-15, 17-6) move directly into the semifinals. The other four teams must play elimination games to officially get into the four-team, double-elimination bracket.

The two elimination games will kick off the tournament Thursday as Austin Peay (31-25, 14-10) plays Murray State (20-30, 11-12) at 10 a.m. and Middle Tennessee (33-21, 17-6) faces Eastern Illinois (22-32, 10-13) at 1:30 p.m.

Later Thursday, in the semifinals, Eastern Kentucky plays the Austin Peay-Murray State winner at 5 p.m. and Southeast takes on the Middle Tennessee-Eastern Illinois winner at 8:30 p.m.

The two semifinal losers will play an elimination game at noon Friday, with the semifinal winners meeting in the winner's bracket final at 3:30 p.m. The loser's bracket final will follow at 7 p.m.

Saturday's championship game is set for 1 p.m. If a final contest is needed to determine the tournament winner, that would follow.

"It should really be an excellent tournament," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "It looks really wide open. I truly believe any of the six teams could end up winning the title. It's just a matter of who gets hot at the right time."

Tickets for each day's session are $6 for adults and $3 for students. There will also be a twilight special today and Friday, with all tickets $3 after 6:30 p.m. today and after 5 p.m. Friday.