Murray State eliminates Southeast from OVC Tournament

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University handily swept a three-game series from Murray State to close the regular season last weekend.

But in what has turned out to be a totally upside-down Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, the Thoroughbreds had the final say Friday.

With both teams facing elimination, the No. 2-seeded Indians suffered their second upset loss of the tournament as the fourth-seeded Thoroughbreds squeezed out a 4-3 victory.

The defending champion Indians were ousted from the tournament in just three games, their lone victory being Thursday's no-hitter by Tim Alvarez against top-seeded Austin Peay.

"It's disappointing," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan, whose squad ends the season with a 31-20 record. "We had high hopes, but every team started out 0-0 and anything can happen. Just look at what's happened in this tournament."

The six-team event that concludes today has been crazy to say the least. The top three seeds were clearly the three best teams in the regular season -- Austin Peay, Southeast and No. 3 Tennessee Tech all finished within one game of each other, and the next-closest squad was another 4 1/2 games back -- but they were the first three to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Murray State, fifth-seeded Eastern Kentucky and sixth-seeded Eastern Illinois survived the longest, although Eastern Illinois (26-31) was eliminated by Murray State (23-29) Friday night.

Eastern Kentucky (24-27) emerged from Friday's action as the only squad without a tournament loss, meaning Eastern Illinois must beat the Colonels twice today to capture the title. Whatever happens, the automatic NCAA Tournament qualifier will be a team with a losing record.

"You've got to give the other teams credit. They played well," Southeast's Zach Borowiak said. "It's tough. Nobody wants to go home right now, but we just didn't get the job done."

After outscoring Murray State 29-12 in the three games last weekend, the Indians found themselves in a battle from the start Friday. In fact, Southeast played from behind virtually the entire way after the Thoroughbreds grabbed a 2-0 second-inning lead and never lost the advantage.

Southeast managed just seven hits and finished the tournament with only 13 runs after averaging nearly eight runs per game during the regular season.

"Murray State pitched the lights out," Hogan said. "Our pitching was strong, but we never really got our offense going."

The Indians stranded nine runners and failed to deliver big hits in numerous key situations.

"We had plenty of opportunities, but we just never got the key hit," Hogan said.

The struggling offensive showing wasted strong pitching performances from starter Stan Skakalski and Ryan Forsyth.

Skakalski (4-1) allowed four hits and three runs (two earned) in five innings in his first loss of the season. Forsyth, who had thrown four innings during Wednesday's loss to Eastern Kentucky, gave up three hits and one run in three innings.

"They were both super. They gave us exactly what we needed," Hogan said.

But Murray State's pitchers were up to the challenge as well. Starter Craig Kraus (3-6) allowed five hits and two runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 innings. Greg Gray, the Thoroughbreds' third hurler, earned his eighth save with 1 2/3 hitless frames.

"Craig Kraus has the heart of a champion. In games where he can relax, he doesn't throw hard but he is as tough to hit as anybody in the league," Murray State coach Mike Thieke said. "Greg Gray has been struggling a little bit, but this was his first OVC Tournament and he came in ready to make a difference."

Geoff Kirksey's two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning, which came after an error, gave the Thoroughbreds an early 2-0 lead and Southeast never caught up.

Justin Christian's RBI double in the sixth made it 2-1, but the Thoroughbreds got the run back in the bottom of the sixth.

Southeast pulled to within 3-2 in the seventh, but again Murray State answered in the bottom of the frame.

Christian's one-out solo homer in the eighth off Gordon Dugan made it 4-3, but Gray came on to retire the final two batters in the inning -- he worked around two walks -- and then retired the side in the ninth to end Southeast's season.

Christian and Gary Gilbert both had two hits for Southeast.

"We're disappointed, Southeast's Brian Hopkins said, "but we just got outplayed."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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