Indians' season was a real diamond

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- After starting the NCAA Tournament with a stunning upset of mighty Alabama Friday night, the rest of the Tuscaloosa Regional didn't go nearly the way the Indians had hoped as they lost twice Saturday and were eliminated.

But on a numerical scale, it would be hard not to rate the Indians' season of firsts a perfect 10.

Just reaching the NCAA Tournament would have ranked as an unqualified success, particularly since the Indians had only done it one other time on the Division I level.

Tack on the Indians' first Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship and then their first postseason victory -- against the nation's sixth-ranked team, no less -- and it's a year that would have been hard to imagine topping.

When the season started, it looked like the Indians had a strong lineup, but they faced plenty of question marks on the mound since they returned only one proven pitcher in Brad Purcell -- and even he had a 5.04 earned-run average last year to go along with a 5-2 record.

But Southeast wound up having the OVC's premier staff, thanks in large part to the dominance of conference Pitcher of the Year Purcell, the emergence of Brandon Smith, the second-half contributions of Tim Alvarez and Donnie Fuller and the all-around relief work of Mark Frazier. Many others also did well when called upon.

While all of Southeast's coaches should receive kudos, pitching coach Jeremy Tyson deserves special praise for the Indians' mound work, particularly for the job he did in helping turn the left-handed Alvarez -- a guy who pitched very little in junior college last year and came to Southeast as a first baseman -- into a submarine-type hurler who led the OVC in ERA.

And Tyson also calls all the pitches for Southeast's hurlers, which is no small chore.

All in all, despite what happened Saturday, it was a season of firsts for the Indians.

And definitely a great season that everybody associated with the program should be super proud of.

The Tuscaloosa Regional was quite a showcase event, with most of the games played in front of several thousand fans at Alabama's sparkling Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

While the majority of the crowds were highly pro-Alabama, Southeast did have a decent number of really enthusiastic fans, most of whom made the roughly seven-hour drive from Cape Girardeau.

I originally wrote that about 25 Southeast fans were at the tournament, but after seeing them all sitting in the same area at sparsely populated Sewell-Thomas for Saturday's winner's bracket final against Florida Atlantic, I'm revising that figure to about 75.

Southeast officials, in fact, told me that 72 tickets for the regional had been purchased in advance at the school.

Anyway, whatever the exact total, those fans were hearty in support of the Indians, who drew great crowds all season for home games at Capaha Field.

And no Southeast backers traveled further than the family of second baseman Clemente Bonilla, who flew in from their Southern California home.

Accompanying the Bonillas was Clemente's cousin -- or is it uncle? -- Albert. That's an inside joke passed along from the Bonilla family that I was assured they would get a kick out of.

I had a blast covering the Indians this year and particularly enjoyed the regional.

To all of the Indians, thanks for the ride.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian