SEMO SOFTBALL KEEPS ROLLING

The Ohio Valley Conference softball tournament has been little more than batting practice for Southeast Missouri State University.

The Otahkians piled up eight runs and 12 hits in their opener against Austin Peay Saturday. In the second round Sunday afternoon, Southeast got 14 hits and beat Tennessee Tech 8-2.

Top-seeded Southeast will face No. 6 Eastern Illinois, which upset No. 2 Eastern Kentucky 2-1 Sunday, today at 10:30 a.m. in the winner's bracket final of the double-elimination tournament.

The championship game will be played at 2:30 p.m.. If that winner advances from the consolation bracket, another game will be played afterward to decide the tournament.

Although Southeast (36-10-1) got hits all afternoon, the Otahkians packed their eight runs into the last three innings.

Southeast managed six hits in the first three innings but stranded all six. Down 1-0 after Tech's Adrienne Fortmann singled and scored on a Anne Marie Piazza double in the third inning, Southeast finally struck in the fifth.

With two out and the count 1-2, all-OVC shortstop Jenny Oermann smacked a home run to left field to tie the game.

From there Southeast scored four runs in the sixth inning and three in the seventh.

"(Oermann's home run) is definitely what got us going," said Southeast coach Lana Richmond.

Oermann, a .400 hitter, added a two-run single in the sixth inning. In all, the junior went 4-for-4 with the home run, a double and two singles, had three RBIs and scored a run.

"When the heat's on, she's always the person that I want at the plate," Richmond said.

Oermann said that four scoreless innings didn't worry the Otahkians.

"I think that we were pretty confident," she said. "If we aren't hitting we've got to stay in it defensively because our bats are going to come around. They have all year, even if it's late in the game."

In the Southeast sixth, Chris Shetley led off with a single and scored on a Renee Enos single. Pinch hitter Josie Earnest later singled and a Ricki DeArmon single scored Enos. Oermann plated Earnest and DeArmon on a single.

After Tech got a run in its sixth, Shetley led off the seventh with a homer to left-center field. After Enos reached on a fielder's choice and Erin Frazier singled, with two out DeArmon lofted a fly ball to Tech shortstop Shelley Barnett. Barnett dropped it in shallow left, allowing Enos and Frazier to score.

Southeast's Debbie Schmelz (19-4), the OVC pitcher of the year, allowed 11 hits in five innings but just two runs.

With two on and none out in the sixth inning, Christine Engelhardt entered and got three straight strikeouts. She then retired Tech in order in the seventh for her first save this season.

"(Engelhardt) gave us a great performance," Richmond said.

Southeast's defense was also stellar in an error-free day.

In the second inning, after Tech's Bethany Roberts singled, Jennifer Smith laced a double to the wall. Center fielder Kim Palmer gathered the ball at the fence and threw it to Oermann, who fired a relay throw to the catcher Enos to nab a Roberts at the plate.