INDIANS RALLY FOR EXTRA-INNING VICTORY

The Southeast Missouri State University baseball Indians refused to give in as they battled back to win an 11-10 extra-inning thriller over the Belmont Bruins at Capaha Field Sunday afternoon.

The Indians never led until Vern Hatton wrapped up the comeback effort with a line single up the middle to score Denver Stuckey with the game-winner in the bottom of the 10th inning.

"This was a tremendous win for us," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "This (Belmont) is a very, very nice ballclub that we beat today. Our guys just wouldn't say no."

The win was the fourth straight for the Indians (15-8) and completed a two-game sweep over Belmont (18-10), located in Nashville, Tenn. Southeast defeated the Bruins 3-1 Saturday.

Belmont sent 11 hitters to the plate in the top of the first inning against Southeast starter Brad Purcell. Four hits and two walks wrapped around three errors by the usually dependable Indian defense put the Bruins up 6-0, five of the runs being unearned.

Southeast got one back in the bottom of the inning when hot-hitting Clemente Bonilla blasted a home run to right field to put the Indians on the board. Bonilla, hitting .413 coming into the game, had two hits with two runs batted in and two runs scored.

In the fifth frame, the Indians tacked on four more runs off Belmont starter Jason Anderegg to narrow the margin to 6-5.

Brian Hopkins reached on a leadoff error. Stuckey followed with an RBI double to left field to score Hopkins and later scored himself on a Bonilla groundout. Zach Borowiak's infield single and a line double to center field by Jeff Bourbon put runners on first and third. A Hatton groundout scored Borowiak and a double down the right-field line by Tristen McDonald plated Bourbon.

Meanwhile, Purcell settled in and blanked the Bruins until the top of the seventh.

Belmont's Eric Fruechtemeyer belted a leadoff homer to deep left field that pushed the Bruins up 7-5 and ended Purcell's day.

The Bruins added three more runs in the inning off Indian relievers Mark Frazier and Greg Lunski to take a 10-5 lead.

But in the bottom of the seventh, the Indians fought back once again to close to 10-8 with Bourbon and McDonald driving home runs and a Belmont error allowing the third run to come home.

The Indians finally pulled into a tie at 10 with two runs in the bottom of the eighth.

With Belmont lefty Renes Alex in relief, Hopkins was hit by a pitch and, with one out, Bonilla walked. With two outs, singles by Hatton and McDonald sent the tying runs home.

That set the stage for the 10th. Stuckey drew a leadoff walk against loser Andy Tabb (1-1) and was sacrificed to second by Bonilla. Borowiak was intentionally walked and Bourbon fanned for the second out. Hatton then delivered his game-winning hit on a 3-2 pitch.

Said Hatton, "I had to get over some adversity. I struck out three times today, which I'm not happy about, but I got the job done."

Jeffrey Hilz kept the Indians in the game with three solid innings of no-hit, no-run pitching and picked up the win to raise his record to 3-1.

Hilz, a lefty who had been struggling a bit earlier in the season, seems to have found some answers lately.

"I just got back to the basics of what I did last year," said Hilz. "Trying to get back to concentrating a little more and focusing on the job at hand."

The Indians' 14-hit attack was led by three hits each from Bourbon, Borowiak and McDonald. Hatton had two and drove in three runs.

Mike Martin, Dan Saukup and Jim Forrester all had two of Belmont's nine hits. Forrester delivered four RBIs.

The Indians will return to action Tuesday at St. Louis, which will then visit Capaha Field Wednesday, with both games beginning at 4 p.m.