SEMO BASEBALL TEAM FINISHES OFF BELMONT

Since he normally starts the first game of Ohio Valley Conference doubleheaders, Ryan Spille isn't usually called upon to pitch more than seven innings.

But Southeast Missouri State University's ace hurler was more than up to the challenge Sunday afternoon as he worked all nine innings as the Indians slipped past Belmont 5-3 in front of more than 600 fans at Capaha Field.

Southeast thus completed a three-game, non-conference sweep of the visitors from Nashville, Tenn.

"Once I got past the sixth or seventh, I wanted to finish it up," said Spille, a senior left-hander who improved his record to 7-1. "I haven't gone nine since the (NCAA) play-in last year."

Spille, who allowed six hits and three walks while striking out eight, was pleased with his performance. But he was even more happy to help the Indians secure their second-longest winning streak of the season (Southeast won four straight in early March).

Southeast, which has had something of an up-and-down campaign, has won four out of its last five to climb to 15-17.

"It's a big sweep for us," said Spille, last year's OVC Pitcher of the Year and an All-American. "The team seems to be coming together."

Indians' coach Mark Hogan senses the same thing.

"I'm really pleased with our ballclub right now," he said. "It's important to get the sweep and it feels good, but what I'm really looking for is consistency.

"The effort has been there all year but the consistency has not. But we've played solid baseball the past week. Today we played errorless defense and got a great performance out of Spille."

Southeast's Kevin Meyer was the only player on either squad to get more than one hit as he went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Belmont (19-17) got solid pitching of its own from starter Randy Dunnett (6-3), who allowed four hits and three earned runs in six innings.

Cape Central High School product Shawn Pemberton went 1-for-3 for the Bruins, giving him three hits in the weekend series.

"Belmont has a solid ballclub," said Hogan, whose squad beat the Bruins 5-4 and 9-4 Saturday. "These were three very good games."

The Indians never trailed after scoring twice in the opening inning, on an RBI single by Jeremy Johnson and a sacrifice fly by Phil Warren.

Southeast went up 4-1 in the fourth. Belmont kept the pressure on by pulling to within 4-3 with two in the fifth. But Spille shut the Bruins down the rest of the way and the Indians tacked on an insurance tally in the eighth.

One of the highlights for the Indians was senior second baseman Kyle Yount setting another career school record. Yount now has 595 at-bats to break the previous mark of 592 held by Tom Breuer. Saturday, Yount broke Breuer's career hits record of 183.

The Indians will return to action Tuesday when the University of Missouri visits Capaha Field for a 6 p.m. single game. Southeast will also have a home game Wednesday night as Saint Louis University visits.

Southeast's next OVC action will be Saturday at Middle Tennessee State.