OTAHKIANS CARRY MOMENTUM INTO OVC TOURNEY

Southeast Missouri State University's softball squad is the No. 3 seed for the six-team Ohio Valley Conference Tournament that begins Thursday in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

A late-season push by Middle Tennessee propelled the Lady Raiders to the OVC regular-season championship and earned them the right to host the league tournament.

Middle Tennessee, 36-19 overall, finished OVC play with a 16-5 record and wound up beating out Eastern Illinois by one-half game.

Eastern Illinois, which entered the final weekend of the regular season in first place, finished with a 16-6 league record. The Lady Panthers are 27-34 overall.

Southeast wound up third in the nine-team league as the Otahkians had their string of five consecutive OVC regular-season championships snapped. But Southeast, 28-22 overall and 17-7 in conference play, is the OVC's hottest team, having won its last six games and 16 of its last 20.

"I feel really good about the way we've been playing and we're looking forward to the tournament," said Southeast coach Lana Richmond.

Rounding out the six-team tournament field are Tennessee Tech (37-33, 14-7 OVC), Eastern Kentucky (25-32, 14-10) and Morehead State (20-33, 10-13).

The Otahkians open double-elimination tourney play at 10 a.m. Thursday against No. 6 seed Morehead State. The other 10 a.m. contest will pit No. 4 Tennessee Tech against No. 5 Eastern Kentucky.

Middle Tennessee and Eastern Illinois, as the top two seeds, earn first-round byes. Middle Tennessee will play the Tennessee Tech-Eastern Kentucky winner while Eastern Illinois will face the Southeast-Morehead State winner in semifinal action set for noon Thursday.

There will also be two elimination games Thursday, at 2 p.m.

Four more games are set for Friday, when the tournament could end. There will be an elimination game at 10 a.m., the winner's bracket final at noon, the loser's bracket final at 2 p.m. and the championship at 4 p.m. One more title contest, if needed, would be played at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The OVC tourney champion earns an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Richmond, whose squad is the defending OVC Tournament champion, believes the tournament is as wide open as it's been in some time.

"I think just about all the teams have a shot at it," she said. "It should be really exciting and there should be some extremely close games."