Indians set out on chase for OVC title repeat

Defending champion Southeast Missouri State University looms as one of the favorites in this week's Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament.

But you can bet the second-seeded Indians (30-18, 14-6 OVC) won't overlook fifth-seeded Eastern Kentucky (21-27, 8-11) in today's 11 a.m. tournament opener in Paducah, Ky.

EKU will have Southeast's full attention because the Colonels won two of three regular-season games with the Indians during their mid-April series.

The Indians can point to any of several narrow losses that caused them to finish just short of repeating their OVC regular-season title, but those two setbacks in Richmond, Ky., were as damaging as any. Southeast ended one-half game out of first place behind Austin Peay.

"I know what they did to us in the regular season has the attention of our staff, and I'm sure it has the attention of our players," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "I think our club will respect everybody we play. At this point in the season, you can't afford to take anybody for granted."

EKU's high-powered offense is the main thing that will cause Southeast to take notice. The Colonels lead the OVC with a .333 team batting average, which ranks 10th nationally. They are first in the league in stolen bases with 116 out of 148 attempts.

Nine EKU players who have received at least 75 at-bats carry averages of better than .300, with two Colonels looming as particularly dangerous offensive weapons.

Center fielder Josh Anderson, the OVC Player of the Year, leads the league in hitting (.439), runs scored (72), triples (4) and stolen bases (48 of 55). He ranks first nationally in steals and is fifth in hitting.

Third baseman Neil Sellers leads the OVC and is second nationally in RBIs (79) to go along with 16 homers and a .408 average.

"Anderson is one of the best players in the league, and Sellers is also fantastic," Hogan said. "They're a tough offensive club, and they like to run. They're dangerous."

The Colonels' pitching staff is less daunting on paper and ranks seventh in the eight-team league with a bloated 8.00 earned-run average. But, noted Hogan, "In our series against them, they outpitched us. We've got to answer that this time."

Southeast has plenty of offense in its own right and ranks second in the OVC -- and 24th nationally -- with a .323 average. In conference play, Southeast's .353 mark leads the way, just ahead of EKU's .347.

"We've been swinging the bats well and hopefully that will continue," Hogan said.

The Indians, who have a 5.18 ERA to rank third in the OVC, also appear to have shaped up their overall pitching staff in the past several weeks.

In addition to ace Tim Alvarez, the OVC Pitcher of the Year, Bill Clayton, Ryan Forsyth, Stan Skakalski and Jon Nourie have been impressive recently.

"Our pitching has really come on, and I think our staff is going to be ready," Hogan said.

Hogan said the hard-throwing Clayton will get the start today, with Alvarez ready to go in Thursday's second game of the double-elimination event. The rotation for the rest of the tournament is not set. Clayton has posted four straight victories.

"Bill has been as good as anybody the last few weeks," Hogan said. "Tim matches up well with everybody, and Bill matches up better with certain people. We feel like this is the best way to go."

Southeast enters the tournament coming off a three-game sweep at Murray State.

"We're playing some good baseball and we're pretty confident going into the tournament, but we know it won't be easy," catcher Tristen McDonald said.

Added Hogan, "I'm real happy with the way we finished the regular season, and we should have a lot of momentum. Everything is on the line in the tournament with the winner getting a regional bid. It's going to be a tough tournament, but I look for us to play well."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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