SE UNABLE TO COVER BILLS; STRUGGLING SLU SURPRISES INDIANS WITH 8-5 VICTORY

Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team had plenty of solid performances Tuesday, led by two home runs from Darin Kinsolving.

But this night definitely belonged to St. Louis University's struggling Billikens, who entered the contest at Capaha Field with an 8-26 record -- but must have left feeling mighty good about themselves after stunning the Indians 8-5.

The good news for the Indians is that the non-league loss did nothing to damage their hopes of hosting the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Southeast, in second place in the nine-team OVC but leading in the race to host the tourney since league-leading Eastern Illinois is not eligible because its park has no lights, has its biggest games yet to come. The Indians have two OVC series left, this weekend at Tennessee-Martin and the following weekend at home against Morehead State.

But losing Tuesday night was still an unexpected jolt for the Indians, who fell to 22-19 overall.

"We got outplayed tonight, very plain and simple," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "They got a nine-inning performance out a guy who probably had his best performance of the season. We got 13 hits but couldn't put them together."

SLU pitcher Tim Diebold entered the contest with an 0-4 record an earned-run average approaching 10. But the righthander, who is less than overpowering, got out of jams all night in working the full nine innings.

Southeast starter Tim Larsen settled down after a shaky start and hurled three straight scoreless innings before leaving with an injury in the top of the sixth after retiring the first batter he faced. Southeast led 4-3 at the time.

But the Indians, who went ahead 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth, couldn't hold the lead. Marc Scheffer (0-1) wound up taking the loss as he gave up for runs in SLU's go-head five-run seventh inning, but the last two runs off Scheffer were unearned.

"Hopefully it (Larsen's injury) is nothing serious," said Hogan. "He said he felt some pain in the elbow from one pitch to the next."

Kinsolving had solo homers in the fourth and sixth, his eighth and ninth of the season. He also made several sparkling plays at third base.

Jeff Bourbon had three hits while Jeremy Johnson, Kyle Yount, Charlie Marino and Phil Warren all added two.

"Darin put on a show all around. He made some spectacular plays at third base and hit two home runs," said Hogan.

Mark Campbell, Brandon Shockley and Mike Orrico all had two of SLU's 10 hits.

Southeast will return to action today as the Indians visit Arkansas-Little Rock for a 5 p.m. non-league game.

INDIAN NOTES: Johnson, Southeast's sophomore center fielder, was named the OVC Co-Player of the Week along with Eastern Illinois' Justin Stone.

Johnson, a former star at Egyptian (Ill.) High School, batted .600 last week (9-for-15). He had three home runs and seven runs batted in.

Johnson had not committed an error all season until making two against SLU.

Last season, Johnson set a school record for most games played in a season with 57. He increased his consecutive-games streak to 90 earlier this season before a hamstring injury sidelined him for three games.