CHARLESTON, Ill. – Southeast Missouri State scored three times in the top of the first inning and didn't look back, rolling to a 10-0 victory against Eastern Illinois baseball in the regular-season finale Saturday afternoon at Coaches Stadium.

The two teams will meet again Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the opening game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Jackson, Tenn. The winner of the 4-5 game has gone on to win the tourney each of the last two seasons, including the Panthers in 2008.

 

Southeast (30-23, 13-9 OVC) ended EIU's seven-game win streak in the series with its victory Saturday.

Eastern (17-33, 11-12 OVC) was shutout at home for the first time since April 2008. SEMO starting pitcher Jordan Underwood (6-5) worked five shutout innings and three Redhawk relievers also kept EIU off the scoreboard.

Richie Derbak led the way for the Panthers with two hits in his final game at Coaches Stadium. All seven of EIU's hits were singles.

Southeast scored its 10 runs against the pitching trio of Troy Barton (2-5), Dillon Roark and Matt Miller. Rich Ruff, Tom Kimbro and Mike Recchia each worked a scoreless inning of relief after SEMO had already blown the game open.

 

“This is what we told [the team] going into the series, '[Southeast] is very aggressive when it comes to hitting,'” EIU head coach Jim Schmitz said. “And if you make good pitches, they get a little less aggressive. But we didn't make good pitches. Troy as a freshman out there, it was a good experience for him, but he didn't get off to a good start.

 

“We won two-of-three [in the series]. We told them seven wins in our last 12 OVC games would get us into the tournament, and we went 7-4. This game can humble you. Hopefully we'll learn from this because this team has really struggled putting together a win streak. In terms of the tournament, just because you win game one, the next game is usually less than 24 hours later. But we beat SEMO two-of-three and that says a lot about how far we've come.”

The Redhawks scored five times in the fourth inning and a single tally each of the two following frames. Jim Klocke homered twice and scored three times. Michael Adamson had two hits to establish a new single-season record for SEMO.

 

After retiring the first batter of the game on the first pitch he threw, Barton allowed the next five hitters to reach safely, issuing a pair of walks and giving up three hits. Casey Jones delivered the big blow of the inning, a two-run double down the right field line.

 

Eastern left seven runners on base and saw SEMO turn three double plays late in the game to keep the Panthers from scoring.

Eastern won the last OVC Tournament meeting with the Redhawks in the championship game of the 2008 event. The all-time tournament series between EIU and SEMO is tied 3-3. This year's event will be held for the first time at Pringles Park, home of the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (the Seattle Mariners' Double-A affiliate in the Southern League).