Southeast Missouri (31-16, 21-6 OVC)
at Tennessee Tech (36-13, 16-8 OVC)
Friday, May 9 - Sunday, May 11
4, 2, 1 p.m.
Cookeville, Tenn.
Bush Stadium
Head Coaches
Steve Bieser: 57-49, second season
Matt Bragga: 11^th season
Radio: ESPN 1220 AM
Play-by-Play: Erik Sean
Audio Webcast: SEMOESPN.com
Live Stats: TTUSports.com
Live Video: OVCDigitalNetwork.com (Sunday only)
Twitter Updates: @SEMObaseball, @GoSoutheast
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri | Tennessee Tech
 
It's Finally Here
The series many have been anticipating is finally upon the Southeast Missouri baseball team. The first-place Redhawks will travel to Tennessee Tech this weekend for the most anticipated and most significant series in the Ohio Valley Conference this season. Southeast will look to clinch the OVC regular season title outright with a single victory over the Golden Eagles as second-place Tech will look to gain ground on the Redhawks, who only have three OVC games left. The series can be heard on ESPN 1220 AM. Sunday's game can also be seen on the OVC Digital Network.
 
Looking Back
Southeast Missouri is closing in on its second OVC regular season championship and first since 2002 after taking two of three games from Murray State last weekend. The Redhawks are now 21-6 in OVC play and have clinched a berth in the OVC Tournament field for the 20th-consecutive season (which is an OVC all-time record). The Redhawks plays at second place Tennessee Tech this weekend and can win the OVC Championship outright with one more victory. Matt Tellor hit .524 (11-for-21) with five runs scored, three doubles, two home runs and five RBI last week. He leads the OVC in slugging percentage (.707), RBI (60) and doubles (17), ranks second in total bases (135) and home runs (14), third in runs scored (51), fourth in hits (76) and batting average (.398) and fifth in on-base percentage (.448). Derek Gibson extended his hitting streak to 24 games, which is the longest hitting streak in the OVC this season; Gibson ranks third in the OVC in batting average (.404) and RBI (51). Travis Hayes picked up his seventh victory of the season in Saturday's 8-6 victory; Hayes is now 7-1 with a 3.16 E.R.A. (fifth in the OVC) on the season. Three Redhawk players (Gibson, Cole Bieser and Jason Blum) were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District teams last week. Southeast Missouri ranks second in the OVC in team batting (.307) and third in team E.R.A. (4.29).
 
WIN the Day
2014 is the first 30-win season Southeast has had since 2011 when the team finished 34-22, they also finished 14-8 in OVC play that season. The last OVC regular season title won by Southeast Missouri was in 2002, their only OVC crown. Southeast went on to win the 2002 OVC Tournament; their second including 1998. The record for wins in a season at Southeast is 37, set back in 2002 and 2000.
 
A Tale of Two Offenses
Both Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Tech are very offensive teams. How they use their offenses is a different story. TTU has an impressive .316 batting average and they lead the nation in home runs (65) and in runs scored (409). In short, the Golden Eagles like to swing for the fences whereas Southeast manufactures runs through getting on base, being aggressive on the base paths, and finding ways of scoring with the small ball. Southeast has exactly twice as many stolen bases as TTU this season.
 
Sacrificial Lambs
The Redhawks lead the country in sacrifice flies with 37. Derek Gibson (9) and Matt Tellor (8) both top in the conference and good enough for fifth and sixth in the nation.
 
Double Vision
Southeast Missouri is the third-most double play turning team in the nation with 57 double plays turned this season. They also rank second in double plays per game with 1.21.
 
Hurts So Good
Jason Blum is quickly catching up to Trenton Moses for being hit by a pitch in the span of a career. The record, held by Moses, is 49, while Blum, a junior, has been clunked 46 times, second in the career standings. Cole Bieser is also rising the in the ranks of earning a bruise as he is now ranked fifth with 26. Blum and Bieser are tied for the team lead with 14 this season.
 
Speed Racers
The Redhawks have made their presence on the base paths known this season. Southeast leads the OVC in stolen bases as a team with 82. 9 more than Austin Peay, who has the second most. The Redhawks' 82 stolen bags is the ninth-best in the nation. Jason Blum ranks second in the league with 20 while Cole Bieser ranks seventh with 12.
 
Team Statistical Rankings
As of Thursday, May 8, the Redhawks' .307 team batting average ranks 11th in the nation. Southeast is the tenth-highest run producing team in the country with 338 runs while Southeast ranks tenth in scoring (7.2 runs/game). The team .422 slugging percentage is ranked 19th.
 
Individual Statistical Rankings
Derek Gibson's .404 batting average is good enough for 10th-best in the country while Matt Tellor is 16th with a .398 hitting clip. Tellor is fourth in home runs with 14. Tello is the 11th-highest run scorer with 51 while Jason Blum is 13th with 50. Tellor and Gibson, the league's top RBI producers, are the third and sixth highest in the nation with 60 and 56, respectively.
 
What's on Tap?
As Ohio Valley Conference play draws to a close after the Tennessee Tech series, Southeast will begin the final stretch of the regular season at No. 18 Vanderbilt Tuesday. First pitch from Nashville will be at 6:30 p.m. Southeast will end the regular season at IPFW Thursday through Saturday. The Redhawks swept the Mastodons in three games at Capaha earlier in the season.