Redhawks, Salukis ride high into season's first meeting

Regional rivals experiencing successful baseball seasons will square off today at Capaha Field.

Southeast Missouri State and Southern Illinois, who have both already cracked the 20-win mark, meet in a 3 p.m. first pitch.

The 21-11 Redhawks are 7-2 in Ohio Valley Conference play, which has them tied for first in the 10-team league.

The 22-9 Salukis are 4-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference, which places them in a virtual second-place tie among nine teams.

This will be the first of the squads' two annual meetings. They also play April 18 in Carbondale, Ill.

"We've had some great games with them over the years and it should be interesting, because both clubs are having good years," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said.

Southeast is coming off its most impressive series of the season as the host Redhawks took two of three over the weekend from defending OVC tournament champion Jacksonville State.

The Redhawks, who have tied their best nine-game OVC start since joining the league in 1992, dropped the opener 4-3 in 10 innings before rallying late to win the final two games 5-3 and 3-2.

"It was really an exciting series, with three games that could have gone either way," Hogan said.

Southeast will be able to start one of its better pitchers today, as senior right-hander Phillip Riley was not used in the Jacksonville State series.

Riley is 4-2 with a 2.28 ERA. He has been by far the Redhawks' top mid-week starter but has not been able to break into the weekend conference rotation because Southeast's primary three league hurlers have been performing so well.

"By not having to use Phillip over the weekend, that really worked out well for this game," Hogan said.

The Redhawks have a 3.93 ERA as a team, which leads the OVC. Southeast is batting a collective .290.

SIU's .302 batting average ranks third in the MVC, while the Salukis' 3.47 ERA is third.

Top hitters for the Redhawks are Robby Moore (.368), Omar Padilla (.353), Asif Shah (.348) and Matt Wagner (.348). Shah leads the OVC with 36 runs batted in.