Southeast sweeps baseball honors

Despite leading the Ohio Valley Conference and having the OVC's best overall record, the Southeast Missouri State baseball team had not claimed one of the league's weekly individual awards.

That changed Monday as Casey Jones and Nick Thomas were named OVC player and pitcher of the week, respectively.

Jones, a junior college transfer third baseman, batted .556 (10 for 18) with two home runs, two doubles and 14 runs batted in last week as the Redhawks won all four of their games.

Jones opened the week by going 4 for 6 with six RBIs during a 13-1 romp at SIU-Carbondale. He followed with two hits, including a homer, and four RBIs during a 10-2 rout of Harris-Stowe.

Then during Sunday's doubleheader sweep at Jacksonville State that vaulted Southeast into sole possession of the OVC lead, Jones went 4 for 8 with a homer, two doubles and four RBIs.

Casey Jones

Last week's monster performance continued Jones' huge rookie season in Division I. He leads the OVC with a .449 batting average that ranks seventh nationally.

Jones also ranks in the league's top 10 in several other offensive categories, including slugging percentage (sixth, .754), on-base percentage (eighth, .493) and RBIs (fourth, 53). He is second on the squad with 10 homers.

"Casey is just having an unbelievable season and he had a great week," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said.

Thomas, a junior college transfer right-hander, also had a big week as he notched two of Southeast's four wins.

Thomas started off with six shutout innings at SIU, then fired six strong innings of relief during Sunday's 10-5 first-game victory at Jacksonville State. He finished the second outing allowing four runs. He struck out 12 in 12 innings for the week.

Thomas, who has been a starter and reliever during his first Division I season, is 6-0 with a 4.58 ERA. He ranks second in the OVC in wins and eighth in ERA.

"What a fantastic week Nick had," Hogan said. "He and Casey are very deserving of these awards and I'm happy for them."

Southeast (25-14, 10-4 OVC) steps out of conference play today for a 6:30 p.m. matchup at Central Arkansas (12-27, 4-17 Southland Conference). The squads will close out their series at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The Redhawks resume OVC play this weekend with a home series against Murray State.