HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana interim baseball coach Matt Riser is impressed with the progress his team made this fall, but believes there is still room to grow as the Heart of a Lion Fall World Series kicks off this week.

"We brought in a lot of new position guys and have a veteran pitching staff coming back," Riser said. "Their process from day one to the last day heading into the Fall World Series has been a nice transformation to see. The guys are learning."

The Heart of a Lion Fall World Series will be played Oct. 23 (Wed.), Oct. 25 (Fri.), Oct. 28 (Mon.), Oct. 30 (Wed.) and Oct. 31 (Thurs.) with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. in all games except the last. The first pitch for game five will be at 5 p.m.

Admission is free to all five games at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field. Fans can also watch the entire series on Lion Vision, Southeastern's subscription-based video feed available at www.LionSports.net.

Team captains, the eight Lion seniors, were allowed to draft their teams as well as coach and support staff.

Jesse Buratt, Jason Greenleaf, Sean Kennel and Logan Riddell formed Team Anchormen, taking volunteer assistant Barrett Morgan as their coach and Justin Hoda as student assistant.

Players drafted by the Anchormen (in alphabetical order) include Dreagan Bethel, Webb Bobo, Kevin Carr, Kyle Cedotal, Andrew Cole, Trevor Curry, Andro Cutura, Dylan Earnest, Jameson Fisher, Andrew Godbold, John Gremillion, Rhett Hickman, Mason Klotz, Kennon Menard, Gabe Von Rosenberg and Jordan Washam.

Team Anchormen will be the home team in the first and third games of the series.

"We're a blue collar, hard-nosed program," Riser said. We're learning how to do that every day. These guys thought they played hard, but now they're starting to figure out how to play hard and get after it."

Corey Bryan, Dylan Hills, Matt Pittari and Gabe Woods formed Team Grit, choosing assistant Zack Zulli as their coach and Zack Shickel as student assistant.

Players drafted by the Grit (in alphabetical order) include Kyle Bracey, Ryan Byers, Brennan Catalano, Gavin Culpepper, Brett Hoffman, Kyle Keller, Daniel Midyett, Brooks Morse, Gage Pickett, Sam Roberson, Tate Scioneaux, Jacob Seward, Scott Szush, Kiko Thompson and Jacob Williams.

Team Grit will be the home team in the second and fourth games of the series. Game five will be decided by a coin flip.

"We've done a good job of laying the ground work," Riser said. "Now's time to see it put to work."

Performances during the world series will be incorporated into the baseball program's Heart of a Lion team-building competition held each fall, but there will be some penalties/rewards specifically tied to the series outcome.

The winning team will enjoy the time-honored tradition of steak at the annual team dinner while the losing team will be fed beans.

Should the series wind up a little more lopsided than a 3-2 split, there will be additional penalties for the losing team. If the series winds up 4-1, the losing team will be required to donate blood. If the losing team is swept, they will also "dress up" for a dance off at a future Southeastern home athletic event.

"This sort of rejuvenates the fall," Riser said. "At this point the guys are tired of playing against each other, but now they have some steaks on the line as well as the blood drive and all."