The Missouri Tigers showed Cape Girardeau Tuesday night why they are one of the nation's hottest college baseball teams.

MU used strong pitching, sparkling defense and timely hitting to knock off Southeast Missouri State University 8-4 in front of nearly 900 fans at Capaha Field.

The Tigers, who won their ninth straight game, improved to 23-13 while dropping the Indians to 15-18. Southeast lost for just the second time in its last six games.

"They've got a good ballclub, as solid as we've seen," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan of the Tigers.

MU did commit one error, that coming in the ninth inning. It led to three unearned runs as Southeast made a belated rally.

But before that, the Tigers sparkled in the field as center fielder Mike Ketelsen and right fielder J.R. Warner combined for at least three dazzling catches.

"Their center fielder and right fielder are as good as we've seen," Hogan said. "They really made some plays early when we hit some balls well."

Logan Dale, a sophomore right-hander, entered the game with a 7.74 earned-run average. But he lowered that considerably by allowing just four hits and one run over seven innings. Dale (4-2) struck out five and walked one.

Tigers' coach Tim Jamieson said he was impressed by Dale's performance -- to a point.

"He threw well, but I think he got away with some mistakes early, then he got in a groove in the middle innings," Jamieson said. "He can do better. He'll have to against the Big 12. But he's getting better every outing."

The Tigers did the bulk of their damage early against Southeast starter Daniel Rodriguez (0-3), who allowed five runs and five hits in the first 2 2/3 innings.

MU scored three times in the opening frame and twice in the second to blitz the Indians right off the bat.

"We got into a hole early and it was tough the rest of the night," Hogan said. "Dale threw a solid game. He didn't walk guys. He made us put the ball in play and they made the plays in the field."

A highlight for the Indians Tuesday was their strong relief pitching as Todd Pennington, Allen Landgren and Danny Schiltz combined to limit the Tigers to four hits and two earned runs over the final 6 1/3 innings.

Pennington, a freshman out of Shawnee (Ill.) High School, has been impressive virtually every time he's been called upon. He entered the game with an 0.82 ERA in 11 innings, having allowed just seven hits while fanning 11.

Tuesday, Pennington gave up just one hit and one run in 2 2/3 innings.

"Todd looked excellent," said Hogan. "He's really done well this year."

Landgren fanned four and gave up one earned run in 2 2/3 innings. Schiltz hurled a hitless and scoreless ninth.

"Landgren looked very good and so did Schiltz," Hogan said. "Our pitching has really come on the last couple of weeks. And it's not just one or two guys, we've gotten our staff about seven or eight deep now."

Warner, Jake Epstein and Mick Weiss all had two of MU's nine hits. Weiss doubled twice and drove in three runs.

Steve Lowe, remaining hot at the plate, had three of Southeast's seven hits as he pushed his average above the .300 mark. Lowe added two RBIs.

Trailing 8-1 entering the ninth, the Indians finally gave their fans something to cheer about when they took advantage of MU's only error to start a rally.

Lowe's bases-loaded single with two outs plated two runners to make it 8-3 and then Brad Hoehner delivered an RBI single to make it 8-4. But the rally died there.

Southeast will have another home game tonight, playing Saint Louis University at 6 o'clock.