WEEKEND SWEEP LIFTS SE INTO SECOND IN OVC

Southeast Missouri State University baseball coach Mark Hogan figured it was only a matter of time before the Indians put it all together for a sweep of a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series.

Well, that time finally came over the weekend as the Indians traveled to Clarksville, Tenn., and won all three games against Austin Peay.

Every contest was hard-fought as the Indians prevailed 5-1 (getting five unearned runs) and 1-0 Saturday before squeezing out a 6-3, 11-inning triumph Sunday.

The net result is that the Indians have climbed into a tie for second-place in the nine-team OVC. Southeast, carrying a five-game winning streak, is 20-12 overall and 9-6 in the league.

Eastern Illinois leads the OVC at 8-3 while Tennessee Tech is tied with Southeast at 9-6. Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State are both 7-5 and tied for fourth place.

The OVC regular-season champion earns the right to host the league tournament while the top six finishers qualify for the tourney.

"Winning all three games was huge," said Hogan. "Sweeping a conference series on the road is extremely difficult and those kinds of things are few and far between."

Stellar pitching helped carry the Indians to the sweep. Jason Swearingen and Ryan Spille hurled complete-game victories Saturday, with Spille recording the shutout.

Then Sunday, Dan Huesgen gave the Indians 10 innings of brilliant relief, allowing no runs while striking out 14. For his performance, Huesgen was named the OVC Pitcher of the Week.

"Our pitching was tremendous all weekend," Hogan said. "Austin Peay's pitching was also very good and we happened to get just enough hitting, plus we continued to play good defense."

Now the Indians will have a break of almost two weeks from OVC play, but they certainly won't be getting any kind of breather.

Southeast will be in Jonesboro, Ark., tonight to face a strong Arkansas State squad in a 6 o'clock game.

Then later this week the Indians will travel to Atlanta for a three-game weekend series with nationally-ranked Georgia Tech. The squads will have a 7:30 p.m. contest Friday and a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday.

"We've got some very tough games coming up, but hopefully that will make us a better team when we resume conference play (April 18-19 at home against Middle Tennessee)," said Hogan.

Arkansas State is 18-13 and has won seven of its last eight games. ASU is led offensively by Randy Sugg with a .415 batting average.

ASU has one local player on its roster in junior Lance Craft, a former Cape Girardeau Central High all-stater who played for Southeast the past two seasons before transferring.

Craft is batting just .083 (1-for-12) in limited action. He has appeared in 12 games and made one start.