Complete OVC Softball Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
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Cape Girardeau, Mo. (May 12, 2004)- Southeast Missouri State softball travels to Richmond, Ky. to compete in the six-team OVC softball tournament. After finishing sixth in regular season competition, the Otahkians will make their bid this week for the OVC tournament title and a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Southeast (15-34, 10-14 OVC) comes into the tournament ranked sixth, facing No. 3 ranked Tennessee Tech (43-23, 19-8 OVC) on Thursday, May 13 at 12:15 p.m. in the second game of the tournament. They will follow No. 4 Samford and No. 3 Jacksonville State which are set to pair-off at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Kentucky (39-14) is the tourney's top seeded team, and gets a first-round bye along with UT Martin (37-19).

The Otahks enter the tournament looking to turn around their three game slide. The squad posted a 2-1 victory over Eastern Illinois last Wednesday before being swept by Samford to conclude the regular season. At the plate, Lyndsey Webb hit .375 for the week with two doubles and one run driven in to lead the squad. She posted a .625 slugging percentage and a .375 on-base percentage.

The Golden Eagles defeated Austin Peay and took two of three from Eastern Illinois last week. Lori Bayless pitched two shutouts during the week and has now given up only one run in her last 32 innings of work. She tossed a three-hitter in the APSU win and then threw a two-hit complete game against EIU. For the week, Bayless pitched 10 innings, struck out 10, walked five and allowed four hits while posting a 2-0 recorded with an 0.00 ERA. Samantha Lovelady led Tech at the plate, hitting .545 in four games. Marianne Novac hit .500 , while Kacy Bennett and Samantha Dobbs each batted .429 over the four-game span. As a team, TTU hit .336 while the pitching staff posted a 0.84 ERA.

If SEMO defeats Tech, the Otahks will come back Thursday afternoon for a 4:15 p.m. contest against second-seeded Tennessee-Martin. If the team falls to Tech, they will play at 10 a.m. Friday in the loser's bracket.

The championship game is scheduled for 12:15 a.m. Saturday.

In addition to the tournament action, the league will announce the 2004 award winners, including Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Freshman of the Year and all-OVC teams, at a dinner Thursday night.

See attached pdf for the complete tournament bracket. Note times in this release are central, but the bracket is in Eastern time.