Southeast Missouri State baseball team will host perennially strong Creighton

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team has had a winning record all season, thanks to the program's first 5-0 start since 1995.

Today the Redhawks will try to avoid falling back to the .500 mark for the first time this year.

Southeast (9-8) begins a four-game homestand as perennial Missouri Valley Conference power Creighton (6-3) visits for a 2 p.m. first pitch.

"They're a strong program. They've been very good over the years," first-year Southeast interim coach Steve Bieser said. "This is a tough stretch of our schedule, going to Belmont, now Creighton, then Eastern Kentucky coming in this weekend."

The Redhawks began their 30-game Ohio Valley Conference schedule over the weekend by losing two of three at first-year OVC member Belmont, the defending Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season and tournament champion.

Southeast won Friday's opener 1-0 before losing 11-6 on Saturday and 6-2 on Sunday. The Redhawks had plenty of opportunities in the final two games as they stranded 10 runners in both contests.

"We've just left way too many guys on base," Bieser said.

Creighton, which has not yet opened its MVC schedule, is coming off a rare losing season.

The Bluejays went 28-30 last year, including 6-14 in conference play, but won the MVC tournament to earn their second straight NCAA regional berth. They reached the regional title game before losing to UCLA.

Creighton had posted eight straight winning seasons before 2012. The Bluejays have averaged 36 wins per campaign under Ed Servais, who entered his 10th year as the winningest coach in program history.

Servais has led the Bluejays to four NCAA tournaments (2005, 2007, 2011 and 2012).

Creighton has a .315 batting average and is averaging 7.2 runs per game this season. The Bluejays' ERA is 5.77.

The Redhawks are batting .270 and are averaging 5.6 runs. Their ERA is 4.20, led by a bullpen that has been exceptional with a 2.64 ERA covering 75 innings.

"It's a strength of our team right now. We've got to get a little better starting pitching," Bieser said.

Freshman Branden Boggetto, who has played shortstop and second base, is off to a strong start. He leads Southeast with a .351 batting average and drove in six of the Redhawks' nine runs over the weekend at Belmont.

Another freshman, right fielder Clayton Evans, is hitting .341 to tie junior left fielder Derek Gibson for second on the squad.

Gibson has missed the last five games with a hamstring injury. He remains questionable for today, although Bieser hopes to have him back this weekend when Southeast resumes OVC play with its first conference home series.