May 4, 2001

Southeast Missouri State Indians (30-14; 11-4 OVC)

vs.

Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (23-24; 9-6 OVC)

May 5-6, 2001 * 2 p.m.

Cape Girardeau, Mo. * Capaha Field

About the Indians: Southeast is coming off one of its be Fueled by excellent pitching by starter Todd Pennington and powered offensively by the bats of DH Brad Beatty with four hits and C Jeff Bourbon's four RBI, the Indians began their journey to a 4-0 week.

Pennington tossed five scoreless innings against the Bears. He allowed just three singles and struck out nine batters.

At Clarksville in game one, Pennington tossed another gem en route to his 10th win of the season. He needs just one more victory to tie Southeast all-time season record. The game was his fourth complete game of the year and third shutout.

Southeast won the first game on a Vern Hatton run scored that came via a hit-by-bit and a pair of wild pitches and the Indians won by the slim margin of 1-0

In the nightcap, the Indians needed just the three-run blast in the third supplied by Tristen McDonald to seal the 11-1 win.

On the mound, starter Brad Purcell was fantastic over five and a third innings. He was touched for just three hits, all singles, and notched his fourth win of the season. Andy Davidson was solid in relief, as the tallest Indian nailed down the final five outs with the aid of three strikeouts.

In game two, another McDonald three-runn dinger was the difference as Southeast took away a 3-0 APSU lead with a four-run rally in the fourth.

Reliever Greg Lunski quieted the Govs over his 4.1 innings and recorded his third win of the season.

The Series: Southeast leads the all-time series against Tech 16-13. The teams last met in the this same time last year as the Indians two of three games in the series.

Top-5 Southeast Notes No Person Should Be Without:

#1 -- Best In The Nation: Todd Pennington can now claim the nation's best ERA outright. He comes into this weekend with a NCAA-best 0.82. He is currently the only qualified pitcher under one in ERA. On his heels is pre-season All-American Mark Prior from USC with a 1.07.

#2 -- Best In The OVC: For the fourth time this season, Pennington earned the OVC's Pitcher of the Week honor. He tossed 12 scoreless innings en route to two more wins. He allowed just six singles over those innings and struck out 17.

#3 -- More Best In The Nation: To help close out Pennington finest week to date, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named him their Pitcher of the Week. This is the first time an Indian has won a national weekly award.

#4 -- The Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived: Clemente Bonilla continues to bat toward greatness and leads the conference with his .409 batting average for the ninth week in a row. He opened the season with the best average and has yet to relinquish the honor.

#4 -- Reaching 30: With a victory last Sunday, Southeast assured itself of its fourth 30-win season in seven years.

#5 -- The Cream Rises To The Top: Although the NCAA does not release weekly RPI's until the end of the season, one recognized organization does give weekly rankings. Southeast's stock has risen to its best ranking of the season at 73 of 282. The Indians have played seven other teams in the Top-100. Eastern Illinois is the only other OVC team in the Top-100.

And We Mustn't Forget the Seniored Citizens: Five Indians will play their final series at Capaha this weekend, RHP Tommy Thomas, C Jeff Bourbon, INF Kenny Gaebler, 1B Shane Allen and LHP Jeffrey Hilz.

And One More For Good Measure -- Southeast Stat Leaders as of 5.5.01: Batting Average Bonilla (.409) Hits Borowiak (57) Doubles Bonilla (17) Triples Hatton (3) Homers Five players w/ (5) Runs Scored Bonilla (44) RBI Bourbon (46) Stolen Bases Stuckey (8) ERA Pennington (0.82) Strikeouts Pennington (100)

One More & This Is Important: Southeast enters the weekend in second and 3.5 games out of first. Undefeated Eastern Illinois is at sixth-place Morehead, APSU is at Murray and EKU and UTM are in their bye weeks. Other Notes Receiving Votes:

Rank That: If the season ended today, Todd Pennington's 4.4 hits per nine innings would rank him eighth on the NCAA's season leader's list.

25 and Counting: Pennington enters the week with 25-consecutive scoreless innings. You have to go back to the April 7th EKU game to find an earned run.

More on April 7th: That EKU game was also the last time Penny allowed an extra-base hit.

The Road Has Been Very, Very Good To Me: Southeast has gone 5-1 since it was last in the friendly confines of Capaha.

Grand Day: Indian skipper Mark Hogan coached his 1,000th career baseball contest in game two against Austin Peay.

Highly Offensive: The Indians are 11-0 when they score 10-plus runs.

From The Land Down Under: Thirteen of Tristen McDonald's 32 RBI have come over his last nine games.

More Down Under: Nine of those 13 RBI have come via McDonald homers.

Kerry'd To The Majors: Former Southeast Missouri Indian Kerry Robinson `95 was called up from Triple-A Memphis to join the St. Louis Cardinals roster. The spot for the 27-year-old Robinson was available after Mark McGwire was placed on the DL. Through four at-bats off the bench, Robinson has collected two singles.

Whiff: The 2001 Indian pitching staff is on mark to snap last years record setting strikeout mark. Last year, the staff struck out a program-best 395. The team currently has 371 Ks.

Six and Gone: When holding a lead after six innings, the Indians are 25-1.

Coach Hogan Turns 200: Not literally of course, but in game one vs. Memphis, Hogan picked up his 200th victory as a Southeast coach.

Walking Away With It: With a walk in the first inning against Missouri, Clemente Bonilla has become Southeast's all-time walks leader. He currently stands with 140 passes.

More Walk: Bonilla's walk count this season, 48, is currently second on Southeast's season leader boards. His walk totals have ranked on the Indians all-time season's list each of his three seasons -- 53 in 1999 and 39 in 2000.

I Don't Know Is On Third, But We Want Bonilla at the Plate: With a runner on third and two outs, second basemen Clemente Bonilla is 10-for-13 (.769).

Where's The Love?: Although it looks like reliever Jeffrey Hilz should be listed among the nations strikeouts per nine inning and ERA leaders, he does not have enough qualifying innings. To be listed, a pitcher must has as many innings pitched as games the team has played. This week he stands just two and one-third of an inning short. He currently has 12.3's per game.

Multi-Tasked: Jeff Bourbon lead the team with 13-multi RBI games.

Killer B: Bonilla has a team-leading 17-multi hit games.

First Free Passes: Reliever Andy Davidson through seven appearances yielded his first walk vs. Memphis on April 10.

Streaking No More: Denver Stuckey's 16-game hitting streak was snapped in game three against EKU.

Right Frame Of Mind: Right-handed batters are batting .142 (26-of-183) vs. Todd Pennington.

No Getting By Him: With runners on, Todd Pennington has allowed just 11-of-112 batters to reach base.

Special K: Pennington's 100 strikeouts currently rank him second on the program's season strikeout list.

Put Him On The Mound: Southeast is 10-2 when Pennington starts. We Perform Under Pressure: Southeast bats .649 as a team with runners on third and two outs.

Two-Bagger: Clemente Bonilla has jumped onto the all-time doubles list at Southeast. He now has 37 career two-baggers, which places him with a share of sixth place.

Movin' On Up: Senior catcher Jeff Bourbon continues to climb up the Southeast all-time statistics boards. The following are a list of his standings:

Games: 205 2nd

Doubles: 60 2nd * Needs 6 more to take over No. 1 spot

Hits: 208 3rd

RBI: 152 3rd

Homers: 33 6th

At Bats: 724 2nd

Runs: 147 2nd

Southern Comfort: Bourbon's first four RBIs this season were off two-out hits.

Pour Another: Twenty-five of Bourbon's 46 RBI have come with two outs.

No Match For the Southpaw: Bourbon is 12-for-30 (.400) this season against lefties.

Taking One For the Team: Vern Hatton has taken a team-high 12 hit-by-pitches this season. He needs just three more to break the season record.

Hatton the Conquering Hero: Against William Woods, Hatton tied a school record with five hits in a game.

Hatton Streaks: The centerfielder has currently hit safely in his last nine games.

Snapped!: Zach Borowiak`s 18-game hitting streak was broken in game one against Lipscomb. The All-American short stop wasted no time starting a new one as he stroked a single in the first inning of game two.

Iron Man Rusts: Borowiak missed his first game in an Indian uniform due to strep throat this past Wednesday vs. SLU. After banging out two hits vs. the Billikens on Tuesday, Borowiak was diagnosed with the throat ailment early Wednesday. He returned to the lineup at Murray.

Senior Michael Mitchell Leaves: Catcher and DH Michael Mitchell has left the Southeast Missouri State baseball team. Mitchell started one game this season, while going 0-for-2 from the plate. Mitchell opted to the leave the team for personal reasons. Senior catcher Jeff Bourbon will now be backed by freshman Brad Beatty and rightfielder Tristen McDonald.

Pitching Prowess: With blankings against ASU, Harris Stowe and Central Oklahoma, Southeast pitching recorded 27-consecutive innings without allowing a run.

Fielding of Dreams: Senior Kenny Gaebler brings a perfect fielding average into this season's campaign. In 71 career games, Gaebler has yet to commit an error.

Take a Bow: Last year against Iowa State, Jeremy Johnson became the all-time hits champions with a single in game one of the doubleheader against the Cyclones. The fourth inning hit against Cyclone righty, Charley Bigwood, broke Kyle Yount's career total of 215. Johnson ended his career with 287 hits. Yount's mark of 215 was set just a year prior in 1999.

Bigwood, Big Problems: ISU righty Charly Bigwood would probably like to never pitch against Southeast again. In Southeast's opener he served up junior Tristen McDonald's first career hit, which equaled an RBI double.

"Spille"ing Over: Southeast's only other win over Mississippi was a 1-0 win back in 1999. All-American Ryan Spille picked up his second win of the season in the two-hitter.

The Whammy: Ole' Miss has been a part of just 45 1-0 games over its 100-year history. The Rebels are 22-25 in those games, including last weekend's 1-0 win over the Indians. De-clawed: Before Southeast got ahold of Jackson State hitters, the Tigers were batting an impressive .321. Between Mark Frazier and reliever Andy Davidson, JSU went 9-for-35 from the plate.

Next Up: The Indians will travel to Memphis on Tuesday for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. The Southeast will close its regular season schedule with a three-game set at league-leader Eastern Illinois, May 12-13.

OVC Leaders as of 4.30.01

Team Batting

1. Eastern Illinois .311

4. Southeast Missouri .305

Team Pitching

1. Southeast Missouri 3.64

Team Fielding

1. Eastern Illinois .965

2. Southeast Missouri .963

Batting

1. Clemente Bonilla .409

t4. Brad Beatty .366

t18. Zach Borowiak .331

Doubles

1. Ben Cunningham (TT) 20/.43 pg.

t2. Clemente Bonilla 17/.40 pg.

5. Zach Borowiak 15/.35 pg.

7. Jeff Bourbon 15/.34 pg.

Triples

1. Ridgway (MU) 4/.09 pg.

t2. Vern Hatton 3/.07 pg.

RBIs

1. Brett McCutchan (MU) 50/1.11 pg.

2. Jeff Bourbon 46/1.05 pg.

Runs

1. Billy Moore (MU) 56/1.24 pg.

3. Bonilla 44/1.05 pg.

4. Denver Stuckey 41/1.00 pg.

10. Jeff Bourbon 38/.86 pg.

Pitching

1. Todd Pennington 0.82

9. Tommy Thomas 4.73

11. Brad Purcell 4.89

Wins

1. Todd Pennington 10-1

8. Jeffrey Hilz 5-1

Saves

t5. Jeffrey Hilz 2

Strikeouts 1. Pennington 77.0/100/11.69 kpg.

Indian Trends

Overall 30-14

Conference 11-4

At Home 16-5

On the Road 13-8

Neutral Sites 1-1

In February 6-4

In March 12-5

In April 12-5

In May 0-0

On Sunday 8-3

On Monday 0-0

On Tuesday 5-3

On Wednesday 5-1

On Thursday 2-1

On Friday 4-1

On Saturday 7-5

In games starting before 5 p.m. 24-12

In games starting after 5 p.m. 6-2

When playing in doubleheaders 13-5

When Indians score 5-plus runs 24-5

When Indians score 10-plus runs 11-0

When Indians score under 5 runs 5-9

When opponents score 5-plus runs 10-6

When opponents score 10-plus runs 2-4

In 7 inning games 12-4

In 9 inning games 15-10

In extra inning games 3-0

When they score first 23-4

When scoring in the first inning 13-4

When leading after 6 innings 25-1

When trailing after 6 innings 5-6

When out-hitting their opponents 26-3

When committing fewer errors than opponent 12-4

When hitting at least one home run 21-4

When turning at least on double play 22-7

When they steal at least one base 20-6

Whey they strikeout less than opponent 27-6

When they draw at least four walks 17-7

When leaving more than five runners on base 26-12