Southeast Missouri State baseball team to tangle with SIU in regional rivalry

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team ends a stretch of nine straight road games with two nonconference contests.

Southeast visits Southern Illinois-Carbondale at 1 p.m. today and Saint Louis University at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

"It doesn't get any easier for us," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan, whose squad is 4-3 on the road swing.

The Redhawks are coming off their first Ohio Valley Conference series loss of the year, dropping two of three at defending OVC regular-season champion Tennessee Tech over the weekend. They avoided a sweep with a win Sunday after dropping both ends of Saturday's doubleheader.

Southeast, 17-14 overall, is 4-4 in the OVC after playing six of its first eight conference games on the road.

The Redhawks are tied for fourth place in the nine-team league, only one game on the loss side behind leader Jacksonville State.

SIU is 11-19 overall but started Missouri Valley Conference play 3-0 after sweeping Evansville over the weekend. The Salukis lead the eight-team league.

SIU is last in the MVC with a .272 batting average and 142 runs scored. It is fifth with a 4.15 ERA.

SIU is riding a four-game winning streak, allowing a total of just eight runs.

Southeast and SIU also will meet April 26 at Capaha Field. They split their annual two-game series last year, the Redhawks winning 13-1 in Carbondale and the Salukis prevailing 16-11 in Cape Girardeau.

SLU, Wednesday's opponent, is 19-13 overall and a ninth-place 2-4 in the 13-team Atlantic 10 Conference.

The Billikens are sixth in the league with a .286 batting average, fourth with 191 runs and second with a 3.48 ERA.

SLU, a 2010 NCAA regional qualifier after capturing the A-10 tournament title, won this year's matchup in Cape Girardeau, 14-8 on March 22.

Southeast is batting .294, fifth-best in the nine-team OVC, while ranking second with 201 runs scored. The Redhawks lead the league with a 4.41 ERA.