Southeast Missouri State baseball team faces Tennessee Tech in OVC showdown

Just one year ago, the Tennessee Tech baseball team traveled to Cape Girardeau as the top team in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Now the first-place Southeast Missouri State baseball team gets the chance to clinch the OVC regular-season championship against the defending champs and second-place Golden Eagles.

"We know what the reality is of this weekend, but at the same time we're going in with the same mindset we had back at Belmont the first weekend of going in and trying to win the series," Southeast senior center fielder Cole Bieser said.

The Redhawks need just one win against the Golden Eagles to secure the OVC regular-season championship outright -- their first championship since 2002 and second overall.

Southeast (31-16, 21-6 OVC) opens its three-game series against Tech (36-13, 16-8 OVC) at 6 p.m. today at Bush Stadium in Cookeville, Tennessee.

It will be the Redhawks' final conference series of the season. Tech will have a three-game series against Belmont remaining.

"It's the 1 versus the 2, so it's kind of that preview to what the numbers say the championship game should look like," Cole Bieser said. "And we are fighting for the No. 1 and No. 2 seed in the tournament and it does make a big difference. I know you both get a bye, but it makes a difference, and it's one of those deals where this is going to be really important and we're glad that we got them last because it really lets us show ourselves and the rest of the conference what we're really made of.

"And for us, it's about winning that series again and setting it up to where we can go into the tournament and teams are saying, 'We're scared of Southeast,' instead of the other way around."

The matchup will feature not only the top offenses in the conference, but two of the top offenses in the nation.

The Golden Eagles are ranked first nationally in runs (409) and home runs (65).

Tech's Brandon Thomasson's 17 home runs are second in the nation. Zach Stephens has hit 13, while Dylan Bosheers and Daniel Miles have 10 and nine, respectively.

Southeast senior first baseman Matt Tellor's 14 homers rank fourth in the country.

The Redhawks are 12th in runs (338), 10th in stolen bases (82) and first in sacrifice flies (37).

Tech has the sixth-best batting average at .316, while Southeast's .307 ranks 11th.

Southeast senior designated hitter Derek Gibson's .404 average is 10th in the nation, while Tellor is hitting .398. Tech's Miles is batting .397, and Bosheers is hitting .381.

"[The difference will be] playing solid baseball because both teams can score," Bieser said. "They score differently than we do. They hit a lot of homers and we do a lot more just hitting teams to death with singles and doubles, and you know Matt has his homers. But it's going to come down to who wants it more and who can execute those little things in the tight games that I'm sure both teams are expecting."

The Redhawks' offense likely will face reigning OVC Pitcher of the Week David Hess today. Hess (8-2) leads the conference with 79 strikeouts and his 2.70 ERA ranks second.

He allowed just two hits, struck out 10 and did not walk a batter in his most recent outing against Lipscomb.

"The biggest thing is that I want to see us come out offensively against one of the best pitchers in our league and get started quickly in that game," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "We'll have good at-bats, hopefully get some guys on and score that first inning. We've been very successful this year when we score in the first inning, and that's kind of the goal to go out and score early and make a statement early in the series."

Bieser added that this series likely will come down to which team allows fewer free bases, whether it's walks, errors or hit batsmen.

Tyler Iago (4-3) will get the start today for Southeast. It will be Iago's first conference start since April 11 against Austin Peay. He pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief against Murray State on Sunday and allowed two earned runs on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

"He doesn't give up many walks. He competes in the strike zone, makes the other team earn everything they get, and we want to start the series that way," Steve Bieser said. "We want to make sure that if they're going to score runs, they score because they did a job offensively. We know that he'll keep the ball down and make good pitches.

"But our bullpen is fully loaded in Game 1. Everybody's going to be ready to go and we've got a lot of options coming out of there, from Lenaburg to Hull, right on down the line to Mosel and Siddle and all those guys that we've used all year long. But we've got an opportunity to use those guys in any fashion we want in Game 1, and we will. ... We're going after Game 1 to win Game 1 with everybody that we've got on our staff."

Game 2 is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday with the finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Alex Winkelman will start on Saturday while Travis Hayes will be on the mound on Sunday.

The Redhawks clinched their record 20th consecutive OVC tournament berth on May 2 with a win against Murray State and in addition to clinching the regular-season title, they could make a statement with a series victory against the Golden Eagles.

"I think we want to go in and set the tone for the tournament," Gibson said. "We want to show the conference that we are the best team in the conference. We want to prove to them that we are the premier team here."