INDIANS SCALE OVC STANDINGS AFTER SLOW START

Mainly because of a slow start, it might be asking a bit too much for Southeast Missouri State Universitys baseball team to win the regular-season Ohio Valley Conference championship.

But the Indians at least have a prime opportunity to capture second place in the nine-team league -- which would be quite important.

The top six teams in the final regular-season standings qualify for the OVC Tournament, to be hosted by the regular-season champion.

The top two teams in the standings earn all-important byes for the first round of the OVC tourney, which is vital for a couple of reasons.

First of all, having to play one less game saves pitching. And second, the way the bracket is set up, the first two games of the tournament -- featuring No. 6 vs. No. 3 and No. 5 vs. No. 4 -- serve only to qualify for the main four-team bracket and is not part of the official double-elimination format that begins once the field is pared to four squads. Hence, the losers of those first two contests are out of the tourney."Finishing first and getting to host the tournament is great and we're not out of the running for that yet," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "But finishing at least second is really important because you avoid playing that extra game to really just get into the tournament."This weekend's series against Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, Tenn., will go a long way toward determining just how high the Indians finish in the OVC.The squads will play a doubleheader today and a single game Sunday. Action both days begins at 2 p.m.

Southeast and MTSU are tied for second in the OVC at 9-6, both squads 2 1/2 games behind Tennessee Tech, which is 13-5.

Also still in contention for upper-division OVC finishes are Eastern Kentucky (8-7), Austin Peay (9-9) and Eastern Illinois (7-8), while rounding out the league are Morehead State (6-9), Murray State (6-12) and Tennessee-Martin (5-10).So it's obvious that much is still left to be decided and this weekend's series is a big part of that. The Indians are 18-22 overall while the Raiders are 22-18."It's a huge series for both teams," said Hogan, whose squad has nine OVC contests remaining on the schedule. "Middle Tennessee State has traditionally been the premier OVC program. It should be a really good series."The Indians got off to a 2-6 OVC start but they've won seven consecutive league games.

After struggling offensively for the first part of the season, Southeast's bats have picked up the pace considerably. The Indians team batting average is now up to .274.

Senior second baseman LaMonte Collier continues to lead the offense with a .416 average. He is also first in runs batted in (27) and stolen bases (22 in 27 attempts) while tying for the lead in home runs (four).Other regulars batting above .300 are senior designated hitter Mike Miller (.367) and sophomore catcher Brad Hoehner (.333). Miller is tied for the team lead in doubles (12) and is second in RBIs (26).