OTAHKS MIGHT BE 'UNOFFICIAL FAVORITE' IN OVC TOURNEY

Southeast Missouri State University's softball team won't enter the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament today as the official favorite.

But based on the kind of finish the Otahkians had to the regular season, they just might very well be the unofficial favorite to capture the six-team, double-elimination tourney that will be played in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

"We may not be in the top seed this year, but I guarantee you, I don't think anybody wants us in their bracket," said Southeast coach Lana Richmond. "I really feel good about our chances. Our team is playing really well and all the components are working well for us, defense, hitting and pitching."

The Otahkians, who had their string of five consecutive OVC regular-season championships snapped this year with a third-place finish, won 16 of their last 20 games to overcame an extremely slow start.

So there's no doubt the third-seeded Otahkians, 28-22 overall and 17-7 in OVC play, will carry plenty of momentum into today's 10 a.m. tournament opener against sixth-seeded Morehead State (20-33, 10-13).

"We're ready to go and looking forward to what should be a really exciting tournament," said Richmond, whose squad failed to garner the tourney's No. 1 seed for the first time since 1994.

Today's other first-round game, also set for 10 a.m., pits No. 4 Tennessee Tech (37-33, 14-7) against No. 5 Eastern Kentucky (25-32, 14-10).

Regular-season champion Middle Tennessee (36-19, 16-5) and runner-up Eastern Illinois (27-34, 16-6) earned first-round byes as the top two seeds. They'll play winner's bracket semifinal games at noon today, Middle Tennessee against the Tennessee Tech-Eastern Kentucky winner and Eastern Illinois against the Southeast-Morehead State winner.

There will also be two elimination games today, 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 5 p.m. One more title contest, if needed, would be played at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The OVC Tournament winner earns an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. Southeast is the defending tourney champion.

"We know it won't be easy to defend our title, but I think we've got as good a chance as anybody," Richmond said. "I think the tournament is really wide open. There should be some extremely close games.

As evidence of the tournament's balance, Southeast has both defeated and lost to each of the other five squads. And the Otahkians won two out of three games from top seeds Middle Tennessee and Eastern Illinois, yet lost two of three against No. 5 seed Eastern Kentucky.

Southeast got off to such a slow start this year that Richmond realized fairly early that it would be extremely hard for the Otahkians to make up enough ground to win the OVC regular-season title for a sixth straight time.

Instead, the Otahkians focused on finishing up strong, which they certainly did, and they'll carry a six-game winning streak into the tournament.

"Our goal all along the last couple of weeks was to play strong to get us ready for the tournament," said Richmond. "Our upperclassman have really come on after a slow start. Our juniors and seniors are the backbone for us and we're looking for them to lead us."

Where Southeast has really improved over the second half of the season, according to Richmond, is offensively. The Otahkians struggled greatly at the plate early but have increased their team batting average to a respectable .256, which ranks second in the OVC.

Junior Renee Enos, after a slow start, has been on a tear and has her average up to a team-leading .326, which is third in the conference. She is also tied for the Southeast lead with two home runs and 24 runs batted in.

"Renee has really come on," said Richmond. "She's really been hot."

Freshman Jenny Doehring is 10th in OVC batting with a .302 average while freshman Brooke Nett (.289) and sophomore Emmy Kisaka (.280) both rank among the top 20 hitters in the league. Doehring and Kisaka are tied for second on the squad with 20 RBIs.

Senior Kelsey White is batting .270 and she leads the OVC in triples with seven, which also has her tied for Southeast's single-season record. White is just one triple away from tying the school's career mark.

Sophomore Courtney Eklund has a .248 average and is tied with Enos for the team lead in homers (2) and RBIs (24).

Another sophomore, Dawn Piantino, is third on the squad with a .291 average but does not have enough at-bats to qualify among the OVC leaders.

In the pitching department, the Otahkians are third in OVC earned-run average at 2.25, led by the fourth-place league mark of Doehring, whose ERA is 1.60 to go along with an 8-5 record.

Other hurlers for the Otahkians are senior Jennifer Dippel (9-4, 2.23 ERA) and freshman Renee Mueller (11-13, 2.66 ERA).

Dippel, who is in her first year with the Otahkians and has been brilliant against OVC foes, will start against Morehead State today. Dippel is 6-0 and has not allowed an earned run in league games. She recently tossed a one-hitter against Morehead State.