Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Cape Girardeau, Mo. (May 3, 2002) - After six-straight wins, the red-hot Southeast Missouri State Indians baseball team will travel to Cookeville, Tenn. this weekend to take on the 21-21, 4-7 OVC Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech University.

Southeast is coming off a 10th inning victory over in-state rival Saint Louis University by the score of 5-4. Senior Vern Hatton extended his hitting streak to 21 games, while junior Zach Borowiak had a career-high five hits.

Tech comes into the contest having lost five of its last eight. They split with Morehead State last weekend and lost the series to Eastern Illinois the weekend prior. They are 21-21 and are 4-7 in the conference just ahead of cellar-dweller Tennessee-Martin.

The Golden Eagles are being led offensively by Jake Allen. Allen is batting .384, good for third overall in the league. He has three home runs, ten doubles and 27 RBI's. The power provider for the team is Mike Meihls. He has seven home runs and 30 RBI's while batting .301. The Eagles have eight men batting over .300.

Tech's pitching staff is led by Doug Vincent. Vincent leads the team in appearances with 17 and in win/loss with a 7-1 record. He has a team-leading ERA of 2.70 and has done this with only one game started. He has 50 strikeouts and 13 walks in 46.2 innings.

Senior centerfielder Vern Hatton overtook teammate Tristen McDonald for the team-lead in average this week as he jumped his mark to .375. He currently leads the team in runs scored (38), hits (54), triples (7), RBI's (33), total bases (92), slugging (.639), and hit by pitches (7). He is tied for the team lead in doubles with 12 and home runs with 4. McDonald is just four points back of Hatton in average and is tied in homers and two back in RBI's. Borwiak's five hit performance raised his average to .327 and Junior third baseman Denver Stuckey, as well as junior left fielder Brian Hopkins are both batting over .300.

Senior's Brandon Smith and Brad Purcell both recorded wins this past weekend with Smith also picking up the win against OSU. Smith moved his record to 8-1, while Purcell sits at 7-2. Purcell's ERA is at 3.39 with Smith's at 4.45. The two are first and second in strikeouts with 61 and 54, respectively. Junior Tim Alvarez continues to shine in his starts as he picked up a save at OSU and got a no-decision against Austin Peay after allowing only two runs. He recorded the extra-inning victory at SLU to move his record to 3-0 and has struck out 18 batters in 27 innings while picking off a team-leading five base runners.

Southeast will next come home to play host to the University of Missouri on May 7 at 5 p.m. They then play host to their last conference home series and senior weekend against Eastern Illinois next weekend.