LOW SEEDS PUT NEW SLANT ON OVC TOURNEY

Southeast Missouri State University baseball coach Mark Hogan certainly had the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament pegged right.

Prior to Thursday's start of the six-team event at Capaha Field, Hogan said the tourney looked as balanced as he had seen it.

"It's the most balanced tournament from top to bottom since I've been in the league," said the Indians' fourth-year coach. "Everybody is dangerous. I think any team can win it."

Never was that more evident than during the first three games of the tournament, which all featured victories by lower-seeded teams.

In two elimination contests to begin the day, fifth-seeded Eastern Kentucky defeated fourth-seeded Murray State 7-5 and No. 6 Morehead State upended No. 3 Tennessee Tech 8-3 in 10 innings.

Then in the evening, Eastern Kentucky began the semifinal round with a stunningly lopsided 15-3 romp past top-seeded Eastern Illinois, the OVC regular-season champion.

Host Southeast, the second seed, was hoping to buck that upset trend in the second semifinal game that did not get started until about 9 p.m.

But at press time, Morehead's upstart Eagles (20-32) had the upper hand as they led the Indians (27-22) 9-6 after seven innings.

Eastern Kentucky (24-27-1) will play in today's 3:30 p.m. winner's bracket final against the winner of the Southeast-Morehead game.

At noon today, Eastern Illinois (35-15) and the loser of the Southeast-Morehead contest will square off in an elimination game.

The loser's bracket final is set for 7 tonight and after that game the tournament field will be down to two teams.

Saturday's championship game will be played at 3 p.m. Another title contest, if needed, would follow.

"It's been wild so far, just like I think everybody thought it would be," said Hogan prior to his team's game Thursday night.

The final contest of the day certainly fit that bill as the first five innings -- which featured a little bit of everything -- took almost two hours to complete.

Morehead jumped on top with a six-run second inning that featured five hits and two errors, which made three of the runs unearned. Cameron Langham had the big blow, a two-run double.

Southeast came back with four in the third, featuring Jeff Bourbon's bloop two-run double.

But the Eagles got three right back in the fourth to make it 9-4, all the runs being unearned thanks to two more Southeast errors.

The Indians pulled to within 9-5 in the fifth on Kyle Yount's RBI single.

Morehead missed a golden opportunity to pad its lead in the sixth as the Eagles loaded the bases with nobody out yet failed to capitalize.

Charlie Marino brought the Indians to within 9-6 in the seventh when he drilled his OVC-leading 19th home run of the season over the right field fence. That blast brought the junior within one homer of Southeast's single-season record.

Indian starter Jason Swearingen was still in the game through seven innings. Although he allowed 13 hits, only three of the runs were earned.

Morehead starter R.J. Hayes went three innings, allowing four runs. Chris Bioty hurled the next four innings, giving up two runs.

Like Hogan, Eastern Kentucky coach Jim Ward also thought things would be kind of crazy -- and much to his delight, they were. That's because the Colonels posted two big wins to put them undefeated entering today's action.

"It was a good day for us. It's a game of survival so it's nice to get two wins," said a smiling Ward. "I saw where coach Hogan said in the paper that the tournament looks really wide open going in. That's the way we felt."

After eliminating Murray in Thursday's tournament opener, Eastern Kentucky simply wiped out pre-tourney favorite Eastern Illinois, pounding out 20 hits and building up a 13-1 lead after three innings.

"Offense has been the best part of our game all year," Ward said. "But I thought the biggest thing is our pitcher went all nine innings."

Corey Eagle (4-5) scattered 10 hits as he shut down the OVC's top-hitting team.

Brad Sizemore led Eastern Kentucky with four hits and four runs batted in. He also had three hits against Murray State, making him 7-for-11 on the day.

J.D. Bussell also had four hits while Adam Basil, Sean Murray and Matt Mason all belted home runs. Basil and Murray had also homered in the earlier game.

All told, the Colonels had 33 hits on the day after getting 13 against Murray State.

Eastern Illinois starter John Larson (6-4) was ripped for six runs in just 1 1/3 innings as he took the loss.

The most exciting game of the day took place during the second and final elimination contest, when it looked like Morehead would be sent packing by defending tournament champion Tennessee Tech.

Morehead trailed 3-2 in the top of the ninth inning and the Eagles were down to their final strike.

But Chris Berry singled in the tying run with two outs, then Morehead exploded for five runs in the 10th. Harold Craft's RBI double put the Eagles up 4-3 and John Holbrook's three-run double added insurance.

Jon Rauch, Morehead's impressive 6-foot-9 righthander, allowed just five hits in 7 1/3 innings but did not figure into the decision. Rick Cercy (5-4) gained the win with two scoreless and hitless innings.

Mike Moore of Tennessee Tech also was solid, allowing only five hits and two runs in seven innings. Chad Heminover (3-4) took the loss.

Tennessee Tech bowed out of the tournament with a 28-24 record while Murray State finished at 19-33.

OVC Baseball Tournament

(at Capaha Field)

Thursday's Games

(Game 1) -- Eastern Kentucky 7, Murray State 5

(Game 2) -- Morehead State 8, Tennessee Tech 3

(Game 3) -- Eastern Illinois X, Eastern Kentucky X

(Game 4) -- Southeast Missouri X, Morehead State X

Today's Games

Noon (Game 5) -- Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser

3:30 p.m. (Game 6) -- Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner

7 p.m. (Game 7) -- Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 loser

Saturday's Games

3 p.m. (Game 8) -- Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner

(If Game 8 winner has one previous tournament loss, then Game 9 will be played 30 minutes after Game 8)