THE LATEST LINE: OVC HITS HR WITH TOURNEY IN PADUCAH

The Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament did not go the way Southeast Missouri State University would have liked as the Indians were bounced in two games.

But the tourney itself, held Wednesday through Saturday at a neutral site in Paducah, Ky., for the first time, was a big hit.

Renovated Brooks Stadium, a former minor-league ballpark that has recaptured that kind of feel, drew rave reviews from virtually all corners as fans packed into the beautiful facility.

It has been fairly well documented that SEMO was dead set against taking the event away from campus locations, and that was understandable since the Indians had hosted the past three tournaments.

But the reason the tourney had been held in Cape Girardeau during the last three years was a driving force in shifting the event to a neutral playing field.

The way the tournament was supposed to work is that the conference's regular-season champion got to host, but there was one not-so-minor stipulation: the team had to have lights on its home field.

If the league winner did not have lights, then the highest-finishing team with a lighted playing field was awarded host status. And the last three years, the regular-season champion had no lights, so runner-up SEMO got to play the tourney at Capaha Field (that would have again been the case this year).

As great as that was for local baseball fans and as convenient as it was for me to cover the event it always struck me as not really being very fair.

No doubt, the Indians had fine seasons in finishing second the last three years, but they never really did fully earn the right to host the tournament. It was simply their good fortune that the teams finishing just ahead of them were in the dark -- so to speak -- when it came to their home parks.

In an attempt to level the playing field, and also to turn its baseball tournament into more of a showcase event along the lines of its basketball tourney, the OVC decided to make the move to Paducah.

As fun as it was having the tournament at Capaha, I hope it stays in Kentucky.

* Congratulations to the St. Vincent High School golf team for winning the Class 1A state championship.

* Also congrats to Kelly distance ace Adam Daughhetee, who won his second straight 2A 1,600-meter title Friday.

And kudos to Scott City freshman phenom Loren Groves, who finished second in the 2A discus and 100 hurdles.

* One final pat on the back, to Cape Central product Jay Meystedt, a senior at Missouri who won the Big 12 Conference high-jump title Friday by clearing 7 feet 1/2 inch.

Meystedt, who had previously been a five-time all-Big 12 perfomer in his specialty, recently provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a jump of 7-2 1/2.

* Good luck to Cape Girardeau native Don Maurer, who has been named the boys basketball coach at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS).

Maurer, a former Notre Dame coach, spent more than a decade as St. Louis U. High's coach before being relieved of that post a few weeks ago.

* The Capahas -- armed with a new sponsor, Craftsman Union -- will hold tryouts 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Capaha Park.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.