Indians hold on to defeat AP

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- For the first time in three weeks, Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team has won an Ohio Valley Conference series.

Bill Clayton turned in a strong pitching performance and Brian Hopkins, Justin Christian and Denver Stuckey all homered as the Indians held off host Austin Peay 8-6 Sunday. The squads split Saturday's doubleheader.

The Indians improved to 22-14 overall and 6-5 in OVC play as they pulled to within one game on the loss side of first place in the conference. The Governors fell to 17-23-1 and 6-4-1.

"It's obviously the biggest win of the year for us," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "It was nothing but a gutcheck and I couldn't be prouder of the club."

Clayton, a hard-throwing right-handed transfer from Southern Illinois, has had an up-and-down rookie season with the Indians but he has been improving in recent outings.

Sunday, Clayton (2-2) turned in arguably his best performance in a Southeast uniform, working seven innings in his longest outing of the season. He allowed two runs and seven hits, with one strikeout and three walks.

"Bill Clayton threw by far the best he has for us," Hogan said.

Christian, a senior second baseman who transferred from Auburn, continued his hot series with a two-run homer, his ninth of the season and third of the weekend.

Hopkins, a senior left fielder who leads the Indians in hitting, belted his team-high 11th homer of the year, a solo shot.

Hopkins had three hits and drove in two runs. Stuckey and Christian both added two hits and two RBIs as the Indians finished with 10 hits.

The Indians grabbed a 2-0 first-inning lead on Gary Gilbert's two-out, two-run single.

Christian's two-run shot in the third made it 4-0.

Austin Peay scored twice in the third, but Hopkins' RBI single in the fourth made it 5-2 and his homer in the seventh put the Indians ahead 6-2.

Stuckey's fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth, made it 8-2 and it looked like the Indians would cruise.

But Austin Peay scored twice off James Beever in the eighth, then scored twice off Gilbert in the ninth and had a runner on first with no outs and two runners on base with two outs before Gilbert closed the door.

"Gary hasn't pitched all that much, but he showed a lot of courage to get out of that last inning," Hogan said.

Austin Peay finished with 12 hits, three each by Ron Bethke and A.J. Ellis. Bethke homered.

Southeast returns to action Wednesday with a non-conference game at nationally ranked Missouri. The Indians resume OVC play next weekend with a three-game series at Tennessee-Martin.