RAIDERS STIR FROM SLUMBER, VISIT SE FOR WEEKEND SERIES

A Middle Tennessee State team that is finally starting to live up to its preseason billing will provide the opposition this weekend for Southeast Missouri State University's baseball Indians.

The Raiders, who have been one of the Ohio Valley Conference's top squads over the past decade, were the preseason choice to win the league this season.

But the Raiders struggled for the first half of the campaign before recently righting themselves. They'll carry considerable momentum into the crucial three-game series that begins today with a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Capaha Field. It will be River Eagle Day at Capaha, with complimentary food and beverages available.

The squads will play a single contest Sunday at 1 p.m. at Capaha.

"I don't really know what their problems were early, but they're playing much better now," said Southeast coach Mark Hogan.

Southeast, 20-17 overall, is 9-6 in OVC play, which puts the Indians in third place in the nine-team league.

MTSU, 14-21 overall, is 6-8 in the OVC, which puts the Raiders in seventh place. The top six teams in the final league standings qualify for the conference tournament.

"It's a huge series because we're still fighting to host the (OVC) tournament and they're fighting to get into the tournament," Hogan said. "And it's not a done deal yet that we're in the tournament, so that's our first goal. But we sure would like to host."

The OVC regular-season champion hosts the conference tournament, but a team is only eligible to host the tourney if it has lights at its home park.

As luck would have it, first-place Eastern Illinois (11-3) does not have lights, so the Panthers can not host the OVC tourney.

That means it appears -- barring a collapse by either team -- that hosting the tournament will come down to a battle between Southeast and second-place Tennessee Tech (12-6).

But that's not to rule out a hot spurt by fourth-place Murray State (9-9), fifth place Eastern Kentucky (7-8) and Morehead State (7-8) or even Middle Tennessee.

"There is still so much to be decided," said Hogan, whose squad has nine OVC games remaining. "A lot of things can still happen."

A lot does figure to happen this weekend, not only in Cape Girardeau but also at several other sites, including Charleston, Ill., where Eastern Illinois will play host to Tennessee Tech in a battle between the league's top two teams right now.

A strong showing by Southeast this weekend -- coupled with a strong showing by Eastern Illinois -- could really solidify the Indians' chances of hosting the OVC tourney.

The Indians have lost five straight games -- all outside the conference -- to some top-flight teams, dropping three to Georgia Tech and one each to Missouri and Arkansas State.

"Even though we lost those five games, we could have easily won three of them and I'm encouraged by the way we stacked up against those excellent teams," said Hogan. "We're looking forward to getting back into the league."

Not that Hogan expects anything to be easy against MTSU this weekend.