Southeast Missouri State baseball waits to get on field as weather shifts OVC tourney schedule

Everything was right on track for the Southeast Missouri State baseball team as it prepared for its opening game of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Thursday.

The Redhawks went about their usual schedule the same way they would before any game in a weekend series. They got up, went and worked out at 9 a.m. at Jackson State Community College and then relaxed a bit before arriving at The Ballpark in Jackson, Tennessee, around 4 p.m.

No. 1 Southeast began its pregame prep for its 7 p.m. start against No. 4 Morehead State about 45 minutes later, approximately the same time that a game between No. 2 Jacksonville State and No. 3 Austin Peay went into a lightning delay. The inclement weather eventually postponed that contest, tied 3-3 in the fourth inning, as well as Southeast's nightcap, and altered the schedule for the remainder of the tournament.

"The weather's presented a lot of problems," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "It's been very difficult for not only us, but every team that's kind of been involved, especially in the middle of the rain delays with the games that've been played. For us, we get right to the edge of getting ready and then all of a sudden you get it pulled out from under you and you've got to sit and wait. But it's tough for everyone. You just can't control the weather."

A final decision to postpone the APSU-JSU game was made just after 9 p.m. Thursday, more than four hours after the game went into a delay. It will be resumed at 11 a.m. today.

Southeast and Morehead are slated to play at 3 p.m. today. If the regular-season champion Redhawks win and remain in the winner's bracket they will play the winner of the APSU-JSU game at 3 p.m. Saturday for a spot in Sunday's noon championship game.

If Southeast loses to the Eagles and JSU defeats APSU, the Redhawks will play again at 7 p.m. today. If the Redhawks lose and JSU also loses they will play at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"For us it's as good as it could be," Bieser said of the schedule. "Since they didn't get to finish tonight's game I think the schedule ended up being a little bit better. I felt as the No. 1 seed that you shouldn't have to play a doubleheader if you win, if you're still in the winner's bracket, and that's what would've happened if they would've been able to finish this game tonight. Now if we can stay in the winner's bracket we play one game tomorrow and one game the next day and kind of stay on the schedule that it should be for the winner's bracket game."

Bieser, whose team is the only one that has yet to take the field in the tournament, said his players are handling the wait just fine.

"We saw that this week would be pretty dicey here and there might be some possibilities, and obviously they presented themselves," Bieser said. "It's just something that's baseball, just something you've got to deal with."

The weather affected the tournament from the get-go with the start time of the first game of the tournament between Morehead and No. 5 Tennessee on Wednesday being pushed back 45 minutes to 1:45 p.m. That contest then went into a 3 hour, 23 minute rain delay in the middle of the seventh inning and Morehead State eventually won 3-2 on a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Game 2 didn't get underway until after 10 p.m. and lasted until 1:45 a.m. with APSU defeating No. 6 Belmont 12-7.

The Bruins bounced back nine hours later in their 11 a.m. elimination game and ended Tennessee Tech's season with a 9-8 victory.

"We went and watched games [Wednesday] and they had an opportunity to sit and watch the teams get started and wait several hours before they go back and finish it and then they go extra innings, so obviously I think we feel a little fortunate that we haven't been involved in that yet," Bieser said. "The weather still does look a little dicey yet, but when it's all said and done we'll get this thing in at some point."