Southeast Missouri State baseball crowned OVC champion after Austin Peay vacates wins

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team won its third consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title outright without any games being played on Monday.

It was announced Monday afternoon that the Austin Peay baseball team, the only team that would've been able to still catch the Redhawks in the standings heading into their final conference series, would vacate four conference victories from this season due to the use of an ineligible student-athlete.

With the four games vacated and no conference games remaining, the Govs sit at 17-9 in conference while Southeast will enter its final OVC series vs. Belmont on Thursday at 21-6.

It's the fourth time Southeast has won the regular-season title (2002, 2014, 2015 and 2016) and third straight in four years under coach Steve Bieser.

This is the first time since the OVC stopped division play in 1989 that a team has won three consecutive titles outright. Middle Tennessee won it from 1995-97, but was co-champion in 1996 and 1997.

The Redhawks will be the No. 1 seed in the six-team OVC tournament. They will play the worst seed between the winners of Games 1 and 2 at 7 p.m. on May 26 at The Ballpark in Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee.

Southeast (34-16) begins its final regular-season series at 6 p.m. Thursday at Capaha Field. There will be a free tailgate prior to the series opener and Friday night's 6 p.m. game.

The series finale is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.