INDIANS NAB KEY OVC VICTORY OVER AUSTIN PEAY

For four innings at Capaha Field Saturday, Kerry Robinson wasn't the only Southeast Missouri State University baseball player to have a hit streak in danger.

Hit streaks of all proportions were being threatened as Austin Peay starter Jeff Taylor took a perfect game into the bottom of the fifth inning.

That's when the beginning of a perfect day and a 4-1 victory for Southeast Missouri State University began.

Rex Crosnoe opened the fifth with a single and Brian Schaefer then ripped Taylor's first pitch for a double. Mike Miller came to the plate and belted Taylor's third delivery over the left center field fence for a 3-1 Southeast lead.

Everything else fell into place.

Southeast pitcher Jason Swearingen, who pitched around trouble in each of the first five innings, allowed only two ninth-inning hits thereafter and Robinson extended his Ohio Valley Conference hitting streak to a record 32 games.

"This was a huge win," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "We really needed it after a tough loss last night. We had a hangover the first couple of innings and I was concerned about our ability to get over it, but the kids did a fine job."

Southeast, which won two of the three games with Austin Peay, improved to 21-16 overall and 8-4 in the OVC. The Indians are tied for second place in the conference with Morehead State. Austin Peay fell to 17-23 and 5-7.

Austin Peay put Swearingen on the ropes in the first inning with a one-out walk, an error and an RBI double by Brock Maiser. But the run would be the last for the Govs as Swearingen began a game-long trend of stranding Austin Peay runners.

Swearingen fanned Ryan Bennett for the second out and Nate Manning flied out to right field to end the threat, stranding runners at second at third.

"If they get three or four there, and the way we struggled with the bats the first three to four innings, we're in trouble," said Hogan.

Austin Peay stranded a runner at second base in the second inning, lost two base runners stealing in the third, failed to capitalize on a leadoff double in the fourth and left a runner at third in the fifth.

Meanwhile Taylor was sailing along with a perfect game -- until the fifth.

"The pitcher did a good job the first time around, but the second time we started doing a little better," said Miller. "The second time I guess we saw the ball better and hit it better."

No one hit it better or farther than Miller, who with a 1-1 count sent a Taylor fastball over the fence. It was Miller's second home run of the season. His first came last week, a grand slam in a 14-12 win over Tennessee-Martin.

Southeast added a run in the sixth when Robinson, searching for his first hit, walked, stopped at third on a Tom Breuer double and scored on a Crosnoe groundout to second.

Robinson extended his hitting streak to 32 games in the eighth inning on a bunt single.

"That's one of the reasons he has a 32-game hitting streak," said Hogan, "because he can do it a lot of ways."

Austin Peay sent the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning with two out, but Benji Zimmerman flied out to right field to end the game.

Southeast returns to action Monday with a 1:30 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at Northeastern Illinois.

Those two games will be the start of an extremely busy week for the Indians, who will play at Northern Iowa Tuesday in a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

Then Thursday, Southeast will play at St. Louis University in a 7 p.m. single game.

And next weekend, it will be back to OVC competition for the Indians. They'll play at Eastern Kentucky next Saturday in a noon doubleheader before facing the same squad Sunday in a noon single game.

"It's going to be a very challenging week for us," said Hogan. "We'll just have to see what happens."