Southeast baseball team takes undefeated OVC record into first home series Friday

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team is off to its best conference start since 2009 and will finally get to play its first home conference series of the season.

The Redhawks, who were scheduled to open Ohio Valley Conference play against Belmont at home on March 7 before that series was moved due to field conditions, enter Friday's game against Morehead State undefeated in conference play and atop the conference standings.

It's the best start in conference for Southeast (13-7, 6-0 OVC) since they started the 2009 season 7-0.

"Anytime you can be sitting at the top and have won six games straight in conference that's a huge accomplishment for these guys, and I don't think any of our guys are comfortable with where we're at," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "We know that [defending OVC champion and second-place] Tennessee Tech's a very good club, and I'm sure they expect to go and sweep their series and they're going to be right there, so we can't afford not to play well on any conference weekend because there's such quality teams in our conference and I think anybody can sneak up and catch anybody. It's nice to have a two-game cushion right now, but that's not something that we want to rest on right now. We want to make sure that we keep the pedal down and we keep forcing other teams to make mistakes and to capitalize on that and win ballgames in conference play."

Southeast faces Morehead State at 3 p.m. Friday at Capaha Field to start a three-game series.

The Eagles (9-11, 2-4 OVC) have picked up conference wins against Tennessee Tech and Murray State.

"With Morehead State we know that they're a very aggressive team," Bieser said. "They've been able to score some runs and they've been able to put up a couple of impressive victories against some conference teams. ... We know that we're going to have to play well, and I think if we play well that we'll be satisfied. Any time that we play well we'll just let it determine itself out on the field."

The Redhawks will face starting pitcher Luke Humphreys on the mound Friday, Matt Anderson on Saturday and Willie Sligh on Sunday.

In his lone start of the season -- a 15-0 loss to Tennessee Tech on March 14 -- Humphreys (0-1) allowed seven runs on eight hits in five innings of work. He walked three and had three strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Southeast's offense leads the conference with a .380 batting average against OVC opponents, and Southeast designated hitter Derek Gibson is hitting a league-best .652 and has 15 RBI in conference play.

"Their pitching staff is going to -- I think they're going to pitch backwards, they're going to pitch in any count, [and] they're going to throw breaking balls. I think they're really going to try to keep us off stride, and I think most people will try to do that with us with our offense that we have," Bieser said. "You know, I don't think they're going to attack us any different than anybody else has, but we feel that if we take our approach at the plate and do what we're supposed to do then we're going to be OK against their staff."

Southeast's starting pitcher Friday will be Tyler Iago. Ryan Lenaburg will start Saturday and Travis Hayes will be on the mound for Sunday's game.

The Redhawks' pitching staff has the third-best ERA in conference at 4.17.

Bieser said that while he's pleased with the pitching staff, there's room for improvement.

"We're running against a team that can be very offensive in Morehead State, and they've got to be able to pitch a little bit better than what they have over the last several games," Bieser said. "But we saw what they were capable of early in the season, and I really expect them to go out and throw the ball well this weekend, just like every time they go out I expect them to because I think we're doing the right things. We've got them prepared, and it's just them going out and executing the game plan so I feel very comfortable with those three guys throwing the ball. And then with our bullpen that we've got behind them I think we should be pretty good on the mound."

Saturday's game is scheduled for 2 p.m. while Sunday's is set for 1 p.m. at Capaha Field.