SKYHAWK SWOOP NETS SWEEP OF SE

The University of Tennessee-Martin baseball team has been a model of consistency this season, but that wasn't really a good thing.

While putting together a 6-12 Ohio Valley Conference record, the Skyhawks had gone 1-2 against all six of their OVC opponents.

Saturday, however, the Skyhawks were consistently good for a change as, for the first time this season, they swept an OVC doubleheader.

And that was extremely bad news for Southeast Missouri State University's Indians, who suffered damaging 6-0 and 8-7 setbacks at Capaha Field.

The teams will close out the three-game weekend series at 1 p.m. today with a single contest that will mark the final home action of the season for Southeast.

Southeast, which lost its fifth straight OVC game, fell to 9-11 in conference play and 19-28 overall. UTM is now 8-12 in the league and 15-26 overall.

Just a little more than a week ago, the Indians were on a roll after winning seven straight league games and were right in the hunt for a possible OVC championship.

But now the Indians -- with four conference games remaining -- find themselves fighting for their OVC lives as they attempt to qualify for the league tournament.

The top six teams in the nine-team league make the tourney field. Southeast is in sixth place, but just one-half game ahead of seventh-place Morehead State and only one game in front of eighth-place UTM.

"Sunday (today) is an exceptionally big ballgame," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan. "We need a win desperately in the league.

"Martin played very well and they deserved to win both ballgames. We were out of sync for some reason. It's hard to understand. I don't know if maybe some of our players didn't respect Martin and you can't do that on this level."

For the Skyhawks, respect came in the form of finally being able to win an OVC series and perhaps even come away with a sweep, depending on what happens today.

"It feels good," said UTM coach Vernon Prather. "Our hitting was real good and our pitching came in and did the job when it had to."

The Skyhawks outhit the Indians 22-13 in the two games. Brad Warmath led the way with five hits in the doubleheader.

UTM got a tremendous performance from lefthander Michael Blount (4-6) in the opener as he hurled a five-hit shutout. Blount struck out four and did not issue a walk.

"He's beaten us three times in three years," Hogan said. "He's been a thorn in our side."

The Skyhawks got equally stout work in relief in the nightcap as they rallied from a 5-2 deficit by scoring six runs in the decisive fourth inning.

Matthew Barnett earned his first win after seven losses by pitching three solid innings of relief in place of starter Chris Meyer.

Then Jay Lasley notched his fourth save with some brilliant closing work as he retired six of seven batters he faced -- one walked -- and fanned four of them.

Lasley came on in the bottom of the sixth with UTM leading 8-6, but the Indians had the bases loaded and nobody out. He stuck out Mike Miller, allowed a sacrifice fly to Jim Gerwitz and fanned Kyle Yount. Lasley allowed a walk in the seventh but fanned two in sealing the win.

"He came in and threw extremely well," said Hogan of Lasley. "He snuffed pretty much any opportunity we had."

Freshman Jeremy Johnson went 3-for-3 and belted a three-run homer in the second inning of the nightcap to give the Indians a 5-2 lead.

But starter and loser Dave Siboda (4-5) along with reliever Talley Haines both struggled in trying to hold the lead. Freshman reliever Dan Huesgen was strong in working 3 1/3 scoreless innings, but the damage had been done.

David Michel (4-7) took the loss in the opener as only two of the six runs he and reliever Troy Pehle allowed were earned. But that mattered little because Blount mowed down the Indians.

Miller had two hits for the Indians in the first game. Warmath had three for the Skyhawks. He and Erik Morgan both drove in two runs.

Kyle Hodge had three hits for UTM in the second game. Johnnie Sanfratello had two RBIs.