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Tennessee Tech topped Belmont 16-4 on Saturday to capture the 2017 OVC Baseball Championship. IIt marked the fourth overall title for the Golden Eagles and first since 2009.
This season marked 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.
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 12: #3 Belmont 11, #2 Morehead State 5
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Game 13: #1 Tennessee Tech 16, #3 Belmont 4
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#1 TENNESSEE TECH 16, #3 BELMONT 4
OXFORD, Ala. - Every batter came to hit, every pitcher came to throw and every player came to play defense, and that made all the difference as the Tennessee Tech baseball team (40-19) captured the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship Saturday evening, defeating No. 3 seeded Belmont (31-29) by a decisive and final score of 16-4.
The victory propels the Golden Eagles to their fifth NCAA Regional in program history and first since the 2009 championship team. It also marks just the second time in school history that Tech takes home both the OVC regular season and tournament titles in the same year, joining the 1997 squad.
The Tech pitching staff showed up and shoved, requiring just two arms to get the job done for the third straight game. Senior starter Evan Fraliex turned in yet another fantastic performance in the OVC Tournament, the third of his career. Fellow senior hurler Kit Fowler saved his best career outing for the brightest lights.
Fraliex moved to 3-0 on the year after tossing five innings of five-hit ball and holding the Bruins to just three runs. The Lexington, Ky. native struck out three and allowed just one walk while limiting a Belmont squad that had just eliminated No. 2 Morehead State with a hefty 11 runs to just a handful early.
Fowler took over starting in the sixth frame and never looked back. A native of Marco Island, Fla., he allowed just two hits and one unearned run (scoring on a passed ball and subsequent wild pitch). More impressively, he struck out a career-high 10 batters with zero walks, including setting down the sides in both the seventh and ninth innings by strikes. Fowler took home his second save of the season as well, punching out Bruin first baseman Drake Byrd to kick off the celebration and eventual dog pile on the pitcher's mound at Choccolocco Park.
Defensively, the Golden Eagles were special all weekend, not making a single error in three games. If it was possible, however, the team turned it up a notch for the title game. With Belmont on the board with a solo home run with two outs in the first, the defense struck to end the frame after a single by Matt Cogen. Fraliex made a nifty, quick move over to first baseman Chase Chambers to pick off Cogen to end the Bruins' two-out rally.
In the third, Belmont gathered a leadoff single to try and get things going offensively, but once again, the TTU defense stepped up. Senior catcher Chris Brown gunned down Tyler Walsh trying to swipe second, with senior second baseman Matt Jones snapping a beautiful tag for the out. Later in the frame, Chambers made a diving stop to his right and tossed a high ball to Fraliex, who made an incredible, leaping adjustment while sprinting to cover the bag and came down just ahead of the runner to end the inning.
Junior third baseman Trevor Putzig flashed the leather down the line in the fourth, making a back-handed stab on a rocket shot by Nick Egli that forced the runner at second to stay put as he rocketed a throw to first for the out. Chambers handled a piping-hot two-hopper with a back-handed snag in the fifth, easily beating out the Belmont runner to first to end that frame.
Offensively, the Golden Eagles were at their best Saturday, torching the ball to the tune of 16 runs on 19 hits, and that was without scoring in the first inning. It started in the second, with Chambers connecting on a 1-1 offering for a solo home run to right center field that tied the ball game at 1-1.
Tech took the lead for good in the third, with junior designated hitter Ryan Flick sealing his selection as the OVC Tournament MVP with his fifth long ball of the weekend, a three-run blast to left center field. It brought his tournament RBI total to a whopping 14 and he wasn't even done.
In the fourth, the Tech bats sung louder than ever, as six Golden Eagles dented home plate. With one out, junior shortstop David Garza, sophomore left fielder Nick Osborne and sophomore center fielder Alex Junior turned in back-to-back-to-back base hits, with Junior's resulting in an RBI. A pitching change solved no problems for the Bruins, as Putzig laced and RBI single to right center field and Junior scored on a wild pitch.
Two batters later, Flick connected for an RBI single through the right side, his 15th of the tournament. Two more batters later, Brown earned the final two RBI of the frame for Tech, launching a double that one-hopped the wall in left center field. The lead was now 10-1 in favor of the Tech.
After Belmont's two-run dinger in the fifth, the Golden Eagles answered in the bottom of the sixth with more fireworks. Strohschein clobbered his 14th moon shot of the year, a leadoff bomb to left center field on a 2-0 count. Following a four-pitch walk to Flick and fielder's choice by Chambers, Jones took his turn at the dish and delivered. The senior uncorked a two-run tattoo job to left center field for a 13-3 Tech lead.
Both sides traded runs in the seventh, but the Golden Eagles would get one more chance to dance around the bases before the dog pile. In the bottom of the eighth, junior Collin Harris, who subbed in at left field in the top half, unleashed arguably the longest home run of the entire tournament down the left field line, a two-run blast. It represented his 10th of the year, giving Tech five players with at double digit totals in the long ball column. Additionally, it marked the 50th home run hit in the 2017 OVC Tournament (easily a record) and put the Golden Eagles in sole possession of first place nationally in the category (97 on the year).
In addition to Flick earning OVC Tournament MVP honors, three other Golden Eagles took home a place on a the OVC All-Tournament Team, including Strohschein, Putzig and junior pitcher Travis Moths.
Flick hit .429 with a mind-boggling five home runs and staggering 16 RBI in three games during the weekend, making it an easy decision for his MVP accolades. Strohschein led the Golden Eagles with a .583 average, scoring five runs and driving in four more. He posted a .667 on base percentage thanks to his seven hits and three walks.
Putizg completed the tournament with a .500 average and six runs scored. Additionally, he reached base at a .563 clip and drove in one. Moths earned a spot after striking out eight batters with no walks in five innings of relief against Morehead State in the semifinal contest. He earned the victory in the game while limiting the potent Eagles to just one earned run.
2017 OVC Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team
Danny Wright, Southeast Missouri
Chase Hamilton, Austin Peay
Alex Robles, Austin Peay
Jack Hranec, Murray State
Niko Hulsizer, Morehead State
Braxton Morris, Morehead State
Tyler Vaughn, Belmont
Tyler Walsh, Belmont
Kyle Conger, Belmont
Trevor Putzig, Tennessee Tech
Kevin Strohschein, Tennessee Tech
Travis Moths, Tennessee Tech
Ryan Flick, Tennessee Tech
(MVP)
#3 BELMONT 11, #2 MOREHEAD STATE 5
OXFORD, Ala. - No. 3 Belmont baseball put together a complete outing to fly by No. 2 Morehead State, 11-6, and secure its first-ever spot in the OVC Championship game Saturday afternoon at Choccolocco Park.
All nine Bruins to take the plate registered at least one hit as they collectively registered a season-best 17 on the day. Six players recorded multi-hit performances highlighted by a 3-for-5 outing by redshirt-freshman Matt Cogen (Franklin, Tenn.) and three RBIs from junior Kyle Conger (Brentwood, Tenn.) who launched his second dinger of the year.
The Bruins used a combination of small ball and power to produce an explosive second inning, plating five runs on six hits. Sophomore Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) got things started with a leadoff single before the squad laid down three consecutive bunts to score their first run. From then on Rafael Bournigal (Mulberry Fla.) collected an RBI single and kept a pair of Bruins on board for Conger to launch a three-run bomb over the left field fence and put Belmont up, 5-0.
Morehead State refused to go down quietly as they used a trio of runs in the next two innings to make it a two-run game, 5-3. The Eagles pushed one across on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second and then scored two more in the next stanza. One of those runs came from Niko Hulsizer who launched his 27th home run of the season, breaking an OVC record for homers in a single season.
Starting hurler Casey Queener (Brentwood, Tenn.) settled in after the third and retired 11 of the next 13 Eagles he faced and only relinquishing two hits in that span. While Queener worked on Morehead State, Belmont continued to stay hot at the plate with a three-run frame in the fifth to extend their advantage, 8-3. The Bruins started the inning by lacing four consecutive base shots, scoring a run and leaving the bases loaded. Hadden delivered the fourth single that scored senior Nick Egli (Brentwood, Tenn.) with a wild pitch tacking on the second run for BU. Senior Clay Payne (Powell, Tenn.) drove in the third run on the team's fourth base knock.
While Belmont's bats quieted down for the next three innings, Queener was responsible for silencing Morehead's for a career-best 7.2 frames. The righty gave up 10 hits but only allowed a couple of those to score any runs for the Eagles as he forced them to put four scoreless stanzas before MSU found an answer. The Eagles scored a pair of runs on back-to-back singles in the home half of the eighth to bring themselves within three, 8-5.
Senior Tyler Walsh (Evansville, Ind.) continued to come up clutch as he sparked a two-out rally in the ninth with a double to shallow centerfield. Belmont went on to score three insurance runs on two hits and a pair of walks to solidify the 11-6 victory.