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The 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship continues with three scheduled games on Wednesday.
The day begins with No. 4 seed Jacksonville State taking on No. 5 seed Southeast Missouri, which is followed by No. 3 seed Belmont against No. 6 seed Murray State. The day concludes with No. 2 seed Morehead State challenging No. 7 Austin Peay.
This season marks the 39th time the event has been held and the first time the event has been held at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama. The venue is run by the Oxford Parks & Recreation Department which oversaw the completion of the 370-acre sports complex which includes baseball, soccer, softball and track & field/cross country facilities. The first major event hosted at the complex was the 2016 OVC Softball Championship held in May of this past year; the 2017 OVC Softball Championship was also held at the same site earlier this month. This year also marks an expansion from six to eight teams with a new bracket.
Tickets, which can be purchased in person at the park, will be $10 per day or $25 for an all-session pass (up to 14 total games). There is also an $5 a day rate for college students with ID as well as children 6-12 years old (children 5 and under are free). All seats are general admission for the OVC Championship.
The entire tournament is being streamed live and free of charge on the OVC Digital Network. The games are available in HD and available on any computer, tablet or smart phone, as well as Roku streaming devices. The games will air live and are immediately available on-demand.
Game 2: #5 Southeast Missouri 13, #4 Jacksonville State 10
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Game 3: #6 Murray State 9, #3 Belmont 3
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Game 4: #2 Morehead State 9, #7 Austin Peay 4
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##5 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 13, 4 JACKSONVILLE STATE 10
OXFORD, Ala. - Southeast Missouri (29-24) came out on top of a slugfest with Jacksonville State (30-25) in game two of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Wednesday, 13-10.
The Redhawks advance to face top-seeded Tennessee Tech Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in game six.
Nine of Southeast's 13 hits went for extra bases including five doubles, three home runs, and a triple. Danny Wright led the way with three hits and five RBI, a season-high for the freshman. Chris Caffrey and Brian Lees each had two hits while every starter in the Redhawk lineup had at least one hit.
In all, the teams combined for 16 extra-base hits: nine doubles, a triple, and six home runs.
Justin Murphy pitched four and a third innings on Wednesday, exiting in the fifth. He surrendered five runs, four unearned, on seven Gamecock hits. He struck out four and didn't allow a single free base.
Robert Beltran (2-4) worked two relief innings for Murphy and recorded the win. He struck out four including striking out the side in the sixth. He exited in the seventh after giving up two runs. Joey Burris (2.0) and Ryan Losman (0.2) combined to close the game.
JSU starter Colton Pate worked four and two-thirds innings. He gave up seven runs on just five hits. Despite allowing seven runs, Pate faced the minimum the first time through the Redhawk order and no-hit Southeast through three innings. He struck out seven total hitters in his start.
A leadoff fielding error in the first inning by Connor Basler led to trouble when Taylor Hawthorne hit a one-out two-run home run two batters later to take an early lead in the contest, 2-0.
After being no-hit through the first three innings and the first time through the Redhawks batting order, Dan Holst not only broke up the no hitter but also put the Redhawks on the board and extended his on-base streak to 41 games with a leadoff solo home run in the top of the fourth. A walk and a hit batsman ensued then Lees sent a single through the six hole to plate Chris Osborne, tying the game. Wright stepped in and blasted a three-run home run to dead center, giving the Redhawks a 5-2 advantage. The home run was the fourth of his freshman season.
The Gamecocks got a run back in the bottom of the frame when Trent Simpson homered to left, cutting the lead to two, 5-3.
SEMO's two-out production was in full swing in the top of the fifth. Kyle Bottger led off the inning with a double. After two out, Tristen Gagan homered to left, a two-run bomb to make it 7-3. Back-to-back doubles by Caffrey and Lees made it 8-3. Wright singled to center, plating Caffrey, then scored on a triple off the bat of Josh Haggerty, 10-3 SEMO.
Jacksonville State hit Murphy hard in the top of the sixth inning. A leadoff double followed by back-to-back singles plated a run. Another base hit with one out by Hawthorne plated the second run of the inning. Beltran then entered to pitch. He used a strikeout and a foul out to end the threat and strand two on base, 10-5.
A pair of errors in the top of the sixth inning allowed the Redhawks to get a run back. Holst reached on a one-out two-base error then came around to score when second baseman Clayton Daniel dropped a popup off the bat of Gagan, 11-5.
Daniel lined a two-RBI base hit up the middle in the bottom of the seventh to slice the lead to four, 11-7. Burris entered and retired both hitters he faced to end the JSU scoring threat.
Holst drew a four-pitch leadoff walk in the top of the eighth. He scored from first on a double off the bat of Osborne. After Osborne moved up to third on a groundout, Wright drove him in with a single into center, recording his fifth RBI of the game and putting SEMO back up by six, 13-7.
Burris began the eighth inning by hitting the first two batters of the inning. After a strikeout, Simpson hit his second home run of the game, this time a three-run blast, to cut the lead to three, 13-10. Losman entered and recorded the final two out of the game to secure the Redhawk win.
Nolan Greckel had three hits for the Gamecocks while four others had two hits each. With his two home runs, Simpson drove in four runs.
#6 MURRAY STATE 9, #3 BELMONT 3
OXFORD, Ala. - For the first time in seven years, the Murray State baseball team picked up a victory in the OVC Tournament on Wednesday afternoon as the Racers defeated Belmont, 9-3 in opening round action down in Oxford, Ala., at Choccolocco Park.
MSU (28-28) used the long ball in its victory as it hit four home runs on the day, three of which were solo shots. Six homers in all were hit between the two teams in the contest.
The Bruins (28-28) jumped out to an early lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning and kept the Racers off the board throughout the first three innings of action before the MSU bats came alive. Tyler Lawrence’s eighth blast of the season tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth and in the very next at-bat, OVC Rookie of the Year Davis Sims gave MSU a 2-1 lead, a lead in which it would not relinquish the rest of the game.
In the fifth, MSU got two more homers to push the lead to 5-1. The first came off the bat of Adam Bauer and was a solo home run that hit off the scoreboard in right center field. Two batters later, Jack Hranec hit his 12th long ball of the season, a two-run shot that also scored Brandon Gutzler.
After Belmont would get another solo homer in the bottom half of the fifth to make it 5-2 Racers, Ryan Perkins got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the seventh and brought home Gutzler again, making the score 6-2. The Bruins would get the run back in the bottom half of the frame to make it 6-3.
The Racers were able to get some much needed breathing room in the ninth with a three-run inning. Jaron Robinson, who led MSU at the plate with three hits on the day, provided the big blow. His two-run single put the Racers up 8-3 and two batters later, a sacrifice fly from Bauer rounded out the scoring in the game.
In addition to Robinson’s three hits, Lawrence and Sims both went 2-for-4 in the win while Bauer was 2-of-5 at the plate. MSU out-hit the Bruins 12-8 in the contest and could have done more damage as it left 11 runners stranded on the base paths.
Ryan Dills picked up his fifth victory of the season, as he was solid in the outing. Dills scattered six hits across seven innings and allowed three runs while striking out eight and walking none. Chance Carner, Justin Perkins and Alec Whaley combined to pitch a scoreless eighth and ninth in the win.
#2 MOREHEAD STATE 9, #7 AUSTIN PEAY 4
OXFORD, Ala. - The nation's most potent offense was in full force, and pitchers Aaron Leasher and Curtis Wilson teamed up for 13 strikeouts, as the Morehead State baseball team opened the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with a 9-4 win over No. 7 Austin Peay late Wednesday at Choccolocco Park.
The Eagles, seeded No. 2, improved to 35-21 as the hitters slammed three home runs and had 10 total hits. The win kept Morehead State in the winner's bracket as it will face No. 6 Murray State at 4 p.m. CT Thursday.
Leasher improved to 9-3 and became only the second pitcher in program history to record 100+ strikeouts in back-to-back seasons as he fanned nine Governor batters through seven frames. He now has 105 strikeouts, just two short of the 107 he had in 2016. Wilson sat down four batters via punchouts and only gave up an unearned run in the final two innings.
Meanwhile, senior rightfielder Will Schneider kick-started the offense with a two-run homer during a three-run third inning. His long ball careened off the top of the wall in centerfield and fell to the ground beyond the fence.
Austin Peay tied the game 3-3 on Cayce Bredlau's two-run homer in the sixth, but sophomore catcher Hunter Fain quickly broke the stalemate in the next inning with an RBI single. Senior centerfielder Ryan Kent then had one of the biggest at-bats of his career as he drilled a two-run round-tripper down the left field line to make it 6-3.
Sophomore first baseman Tyler Niemann connected on the Eagles' third circuit clout in the seventh, sending a line drive over the right field wall.
The Eagles' 6-9 hitters were 8-for-14 as junior second baseman Braxton Morris went 3-for-4 in his home state. Fain and Niemann had two hits.