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No. 4 Eastern Illinois defeated No. 6 Southeast Missouri, 7-4, to earn its second OVC Tournament title. The Panthers earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
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Saturday's Schedule
Game 9 - #6 Southeast Missouri 6, #1 Jacksonville State 4
Recap | Box Score | Live Stats | Live Video | Photo Gallery
Game 10 - #4 Eastern Illinois 7, #6 Southeast Missouri 4
Recap | Box Score | Live Stats | Live Video | Photo Gallery
#6 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 6, #1 JACKSONVILLE STATE 4
PADUCAH, Ky. - Southeast Missouri State’s Matt Wagner hit two home runs and drove in five runs as the Redhawks eliminated Jacksonville State from the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship by a score of 6-4 on Saturday at Brooks Stadium.
With the victory the Redhawks (26-25) become the first No. 6 seed to reach the Championship Round of the event under the current six-team tournament format (which started in 1997).
Wagner, who has 11 RBI in four games of the tournament, blasted a three-run round-tripper in the first inning to put the Redhawks on the board. Four innings later he hit a two-run blast to give Southeast Missouri a 5-0 advantage.
Sophomore Josh Syberg (1-3) took advantage of the run-support, allowing only seven hits and three runs over six-plus innings. Jacksonville State (37-21), the regular season champion and second-best hitting team in the OVC, did not score until the sixth inning. JSU would add three more runs in the seventh inning.
Southeast pushed an insurance run across the plate in the seventh and Ryan Poole pitched the seventh and eighth innings, allowing only one run.
Dustin Renfrow, who got the complete game victory in SEMO’s win over Austin Peay on Wednesday, entered the game in the ninth, striking out two in retiring the side to earn his first save of the season.
JSU starter Nick Hetland (3-6) took the loss, allowing six hits and five runs in 4.1 innings of work.
Southeast Missouri advances to the Championship Round of the tournament to play No. 4 seed Eastern Illinois. The first matchup takes place at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. If Southeast wins that game they will force a second championship game on Sunday at Noon.
#4 EASTERN ILLINOIS 7, #6 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 4
PADUCAH, Ky. -
Jordan Tokarz had three doubles and was named Tournament MVP as the Eastern Illinois Panthers topped Southeast Missouri State 7-4 to win the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship on Saturday at Brooks Stadium.
The championship was the second for the Panthers since joining the Ohio Valley Conference in the 1997 season (1999 was the other year they won the title). Eastern Illinois receives the OVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Baseball Championship. The 2008 NCAA Tournament the field of 64 will be announced on ESPN on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Central time.
For the second straight game Eastern Illinois (27-28) got all the runs they would need in the first two innings. On Friday night they scored seven times in the first two innings to beat regular season champion and No. 1 seed Jacksonville State. On Saturday EIU scored twice in the first and four additional times in the second to grab a 6-0 lead.
Starting pitcher Tristan Facer had a no-hitter into the fifth inning to hold down the Southeast Missouri offense, which was tired from having topped Jacksonville State 6-4 in a game prior to this contest.
Facer left later in the fifth, giving way to Tyler Brandon (3-3) who would pick up the win in relief. He pitched an inning and a third before giving way to Scott Foley. Foley pitched the final three innings, allowing only one hit in picking up his sixth save of the season.
"The top of the order really got things going every game for us," said EIU head coach Jim Schmitz. "And our pitching staff, to average 3-4 runs a game in the OVC Tournament was unbelievable. This week the key was our pitchers giving us a chance to win. Then things started going our way and the defense was good."
Southeast Missouri (26-26), playing in its fifth game of the four-day tournament, used four pitchers. Starter Josh Manning (2-1) was tagged with the loss.
“Both Coach Smitz and I are very proud of our clubs to come in hear and kind of turn the tournament upside down after not having the best season in terms of wins and losses, “ said Southeast Missouri head coach Mark Hogan. “Everybody worked really hard for this tournament, and it was an honor to be on the championship field today even though we fell short to this Eastern Illinois club.”
All-Tournament selection Brett Nommensen finished the day 2-for-4 to add to the EIU attack while Zach Skidmore drove in three runs.
Zachary Blemker was 1-for-2 with two RBI and two stolen bases for the Redhawks.
2008 OVC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
IF - Jordan Tokarz - Eastern Illinois (MVP)
IF - Michael Marseco, Samford
IF - Bert Smith - Jacksonville State
IF- Jim Klocke - Southeast Missouri
IF - Matt Wagner - Southeast Missouri
OF - Clay Whittemore, Jacksonville State
OF - Brett Nommensen, Eastern Illinois
OF - Jake New, Tennessee Tech
DH - Matt Wulfers, Southeast Missouri
UT - A.J. Kirby-Jones, Tennessee Tech
P - Jared Dobbs, Tennessee Tech
P - Dustin Renfrow, Southeast Missouri