OVC TOURNEY A WIN AWAY FROM CAPE; SE NEEDS ONE `W' IN WEEKEND SERIES

Southeast Missouri State University's baseball Indians are on the verge of earning the right to host the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

But Southeast coach Mark Hogan has a warning for people who want to already start making their OVC tourney plans in Cape Girardeau.

"We've still got to win a game this weekend and Morehead State is not going to just roll over for us," he said.

The situation for the Indians entering the three-game home series with the Eagles is simple: win once and the league tourney will be played at Capaha Field next Thursday through Saturday.

By winning one game against Morehead, the Indians will clinch at least second place in the nine-team OVC. And that will be good enough to earn Southeast the right to host the tournament, since first-place Eastern Illinois is not eligible to host because its park has no lights.

Southeast and Morehead will have a 3 p.m. doubleheader Saturday and a 1 p.m. single game Sunday.

The Indians still have a chance to win the league title, but that would take a sweep of Morehead and Eastern Illinois losing all three games at Eastern Kentucky. It's possible, but not likely.

"Finishing first would probably be a little too much to ask," Hogan said. "It would be hard enough to sweep Morehead, and then Eastern Illinois would have to get swept. It could happen, but it's not likely."

Southeast, 26-20 overall, is 14-7 in OVC play. Eastern Illinois is 16-4 in the league while third-place Tennessee Tech is 14-10. The only thing that could keep the Indians from hosting the OVC tourney is a Morehead sweep. In that case, Tech would tie Southeast for second and the Eagles (whose park has lights) hold the tie-breaker edge because they won two of three from the Indians earlier.

Morehead, 17-31 overall, is 10-11 in OVC play. The top six teams in the final league standings make the tournament and the Eagles are tied for fifth with Eastern Kentucky, both squads a game behind 11-10 Murray State.

With seventh-place Middle Tennessee still in the hunt at 8-12 -- and with the Raiders facing Murray this weekend -- the fourth through sixth spots are still very much undecided.

"It should be a really exciting series because Morehead is fighting to get in the tournament and we're fighting to host the tournament," said Hogan.

While Morehead ranks last in the OVC in hitting, the Eagles' .289 team batting average is still respectable and not far behind Southeast's .300 team mark. Jason Kennedy leads the Eagles with a .362 average.

"They'll come in here with a solid ballclub," Hogan said. "It's exciting to think that we only need one win to host the tournament, but at the same time we can't take that one win for granted."

Saturday's pitchers for Southeast will be Jason Swearingen (7-4) and Ryan Spille (8-1), with Dan Huesgen (5-2) slated to hurl Sunday.