SANTA NOT IN A GIVING MOOD AS EKU ROLLS PAST SOUTHEAST 9-2

It was just one of those days.

The Southeast Missouri State University baseball Indians couldn't get untracked as they dropped a 9-2 decision to the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in front of 706 fans at Capaha Field Sunday afternoon.

All elements of the game; offense, defense and pitching, fell short of recent Southeast performances.

After sweeping a Saturday doubleheader 8-2 and 7-0, the Indians were looking for the series sweep to stay close to Ohio Valley Conference leader Eastern Illinois, which is off to an 8-0 league start.

Southeast (22-11) and Tennessee Tech entered Sunday's action tied for second place in the OVC at 6-2. But Southeast's loss coupled with Tech's win over Austin Peay dropped the Indians into third place.

"We won the series which kept us close," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan, "but today would have been a good chance for a sweep. It just didn't happen."

The Indian bats -- producers of 20 hits and 15 runs Saturday -- were silenced by a fine pitching performance by EKU junior Scott Santa.

Struggling a bit coming into the game with a 2-5 record and a 6.35 earned-run average, the key for Santa was his pinpoint control and ability to get ahead in the count. He went the nine-inning distance allowing seven hits with two strikeouts and no walks.

"All the credit goes to Santa because he really controlled our hitters today," said Hogan.

On the Southeast side, starter Tommy Thomas (3-6) didn't have his best stuff and continually fell behind EKU hitters in his 3 2/3 innings of work. The Colonels took advantage and built a 5-0 lead after four innings.

Brandon Smith, in relief of Thomas, stopped any further damage and kept EKU off the board while the Indians tacked on single runs in the fifth and seventh innings to close the gap to 5-2.

Freshman Brad Beatty knocked in both runs with two-out RBI singles.

Then in the top of the eighth, a shaky Indian defense followed by back-to-back home runs by the Colonels resulted in four big runs -- all unearned -- to seal the win.

Two errors sandwiched around an RBI double by Chris Grynaviski preceded homers to right field by John Myles and Kiley Vaughn.

Beatty, Shane Allen and Vern Hatton collected two hits each, all singles, for the Indians. Jeff Bourbon had the only extra-base hit for Southeast, a double.

The Colonels (12-19, 5-6 OVC) banged out 14 hits with Josh Anderson, Adam Crowder and Grynaviski getting three apiece.