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Cape Girardeau, Mo. (May 10, 2002) - The Southeast Missouri State Indians Baseball team will gear up for its most important set of games this season as they play host to the Panthers of Eastern Illinois University Saturday and Sunday at Capaha Field.

Southeast is coming off a victory against the University of Missouri Tuesday. They beat the Tigers for the second time this season. The last time Eastern and the Tribe met was late last season as the Panthers took the last two games of the regular season and knocked out the Indians in the OVC Tournament in Paducah.

Eastern comes into the contest having won its last four games in a row, moving to within 2.5 games of the Tribe for the conference lead. They most recently swept a home series against Morehead State culminating in a 21-5 beating in the finale that saw the Panthers bang out two grand slams in the same inning.

The Panthers bring in the league's best hitter in Pete Pirman. Pirman is batting .405 with six home runs and 32 RBI's, while striking out only 15 times in 163 at bats. Pirman is joined by reigning OVC Player of the Week Bret Pignatiello. Pignatiello has 10 home runs and 29 RBI's. Three other Panthers are batting over 300.

Eastern's pitching staff is second in the conference behind Southeast. the Panthers are led by a trio of righty's in Scot Metz, Pete Martin and Micah Gray. Martin is 4-3 with a 5.16 ERA, while Metz and Gray are at 3-3 and 2-3, respectively. Metz leads the team in strikeouts with 40. Nathan Stone has 33 strikeouts out of the pen.

Senior centerfielder Vern Hatton currently leads the team in average (.373), runs scored (41), hits (60), triples (7), RBI's (40), total bases (102), slugging (.634), and hit by pitches (7). He is tied for the team lead in home runs with 5. Senior Tristen McDonald is just seven points back of Hatton in average and is tied in homers and five back in RBI's. Junior Zach Borwiak sits at .331 and Junior third baseman Denver Stuckey, as well as junior left fielder Brian Hopkins are both batting over .300.

Senior Brad Purcell was named the OVC Pitcher of the Week this past week as he shut down Tennessee Tech's offense allowing only one earned run and striking out 11. He raised his record to 8-2 on the season. He is tied with senior Brandon Smith in win/loss. Purcell is leading the team in strikeouts with 72. Junior Tim Alvarez picked up wins at Saint Louis and Tech. He pitched a complete-game nine inning affair against the Eagles to record his fourth win of the season. He leads the team in ERA with a 2.82 average. He has also limited batters to a .176 average with runners on base.

Southeast will have a non-conference series against Arkansas on Tuesday and Wednesday, then travel to Morehead, Ky. to take on the Eagles to finish the season.