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The 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship continued with four games on Wednesday.
This season marks the 40th time the event has been held and the second-straight year 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.
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: #4 Jacksonville State 8, #5 Austin Peay 2
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Game 3: #3 Morehead State 12, #6 Eastern Kentucky 7
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Game 4: #2 Southeast Missouri 5, #7 Murray State 2
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Game 5: #6 Eastern Kentucky 13, #7 Murray State 6
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#4 JACKSONVILLE STATE 8, #5 AUSTIN PEAY 2
OXFORD, Ala. - Jacksonville State opened the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament with an 8-2 win over Austin Peay on Wednesday morning at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.
The fourth-seeded Gamecocks will move on in the winners bracket to face OVC regular season champion and top-seeded Tennessee Tech on Thursday at 11 a.m. at Choccolocco park. JSU improved to 31-23 on the season with the win, while APSU dropped to 30-26 on the season and will fall to the elimination half of the tournament bracket.
Redshirt sophomore Garrett Farmer worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, which sparked the Jax State offense as it handed Farmer a 3-0 lead to work with and expanded the lead by scoring at least a run in five of the first six innings. The Huntsville, Alabama right hander put together a gritty performance in his 6.2 innings of work. The All-OVC Second Team selection was touched for two runs in the third, but would retire nine in a row before being lifted with two outs in the seventh. Farmer, who tossed 122 pitches posted five strikeouts and allowed one free pass in 29 batters faced. He moved to 7-2 on the season.
Senior Clayton Daniel, the new all-time hits leader at JSU and in the OVC, added two more hits to his newly-established record of 326 career hits with a leadoff single in the first inning. He scored on senior Trent Simpson's RBI single through the left side. Freshman Isaac Alexander, who was one of three Gamecock newcomers getting their first experience in postseason play, added a pair of RBI on a single up the middle.
JSU answered APSU's two-run third with the first of the three home runs on the day in the JSU order. Senior Taylor Hawthorne lifted a home run over the right field wall to push the lead to 4-2. Freshman Cole Frederick joined the home run total with a clast to centerfield in the fifth. Frederick has hit all nine home runs off OVC pitching. Junior Nic Gaddis, who joined Daniel and Alexander with a multi-hit game, had an RBI single in the sixth, scoring Daniel. Daniel's run was the 200th of his career, which ranks second all-time at JSU.
Freshman Alex Strachan closed out the JSU scoring with a towering two-run home run in the sixth.
The Gamecocks' bullpen did its job with junior Austin Brewster finished the final 2.1 innings and collecting four strikeouts.
APSU starter Michael Costanzo, an All-OVC First Team selection was dealt his second loss of the season. Garrett Giovannelli led the Govs with a four-hit day.
#3 MOREHEAD STATE 12, #6 EASTERN KENTUCKY 7
OXFORD, Ala. - Despite falling behind 3-0 early on, the Morehead State baseball team's offense got rolling later on, and the Eagles upended Eastern Kentucky 12-7 to advance in the winner's bracket at the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Wednesday at Choccolocco Park.
MSU moved to 33-23 overall, while EKU slipped to 27-29 overall.
A fourth-inning bases-loaded walk from junior shortstop Reid Leonard gave the Eagles a 4-3 cushion, and they managed to push that to 8-3 before the frame ended. EKU cut the lead to three twice (8-5 and 10-7) but both times, MSU got clutch hits to extend its advantage.
With the score 8-5, senior DH Tyler Niemann opted not to lay down a sac bunt with two strikes, but instead ripped an RBI double down the right-field line. Junior right-fielder Jake Hammon followed with the Eagles' 38th sac fly of the season for the 10-5 lead.
EKU took advantage of an error in the eighth to score twice, but senior third baseman Eli Boggess put the runs right back on the board in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single.
Junior left-fielder Niko Hulsizer led the bats with a 4-for-5 afternoon, while Boggess was 3-for-5. Leonard moved his school-record reached-base streak to 48 games by walking three times - his 49th, 50th and 51st free passes this year. Connor Pauly also had a single to move his reached-base streak to 22 contests.
Eagle starter Dalton Stambaugh (6-3) picked up the win, surrendering five runs in 5.2 innings with five punchouts. Senior Kyle Cantu entered with the bases loaded in the eighth and managed to not allow a run in 1.1 innings for his second save.
#2 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 5, #7 MURRAY STATE 2
OXFORD, Ala. - First-Team All-Ohio Valley Conference right-hander Carlos Vega recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts in a masterful pitching performance as #2 Southeast Missouri (27-28) defeated #7 Murray State (27-28), 5-2, Wednesday at Choccolocco Park.
In his first career OVC Tournament start, Vega allowed six hits and fell just two outs shy of a complete game. He retired the first six hitters he faced and sat the Racers down in order in three innings.
SEMO grabbed an early lead when it scored two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first.
Peyton Faulkner reached on a one-out single and went to second on an ensuing walk by First-Team All-OVC second baseman Trevor Ezell. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch before Tristen Gagan singled to right and Faulkner scored. Chase Urhahn later delivered a two-out single through the right side and Ezell touched home to give the Redhawks a 2-0 advantage.
After that, 19 straight Redhawks went hitless until Cole Bornhop's one-out RBI-single ended the drought in the bottom of the seventh.
Gagan stepped up in the bottom of the eighth inning after Ezell walked and smashed a two-out two-run home run opposite field to right center stretching SEMO's lead to 5-1.
MSU managed to score the game's final run, but left-handed reliever Daniel Bergtholdt came on to get the last two outs earning his team-high fifth save.
Vega, now 8-3 this season, finished with 10 or more strikeouts for the second time this year.
Gray Dorsey (3-1) suffered the loss. Dorsey struck out five, walked three and gave up five runs on five hits in eight innings.
SEMO collected five hits for the game. Gagan went 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI to lead the way. The late home run marked his eighth of the season. Faulkner, Urhahn and Bornhop followed with one hit apiece.
Additionally, Ezell reached base safely for the 41st-consecutive game.
#6 EASTERN KENTUCKY 13, #7 MURRAY STATE 6
OXFORD, Ala. - Eastern Kentucky University’s baseball team scored early, and scored often, on its way to a 13-6 win over Murray State University in an elimination game at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday night at Choccolocco Park.
The Colonels (28-30) will continue play in the elimination bracket against Austin Peay at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Eastern trailed 1-0 before heating up in the bottom of the second inning. With two on and one out, Daniel Harris IV tied the game with a double to left field. Cornell Nixon gave the Colonels the lead for good when he laid down a bunt single to bring home Daniel McFarland. A throwing error allowed Harris to score for a 3-1 lead. The next batter, Will Johnson, capped the 5-run frame with a 2-run home run over the wall in left field.
EKU scored in each of the next three innings to pull in front 9-2.
The Colonels added two more in the seventh when Alex Holderbach drove in one with a single to right center, and Romanik doubled down the right field line to score another. With two more runs in the bottom of the eighth, Eastern Kentucky scored at least one run in six of the eight innings in which it batted.
The game began at 9:52 p.m. ET and ended at 1:49 a.m. Thursday morning.
Johnson finished the game 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs. Romanik was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a run and two driven in. Harris had two hits in four at bats, scored twice and drove in a run.
Max Ford (2-2) earned the win after pitching one and one-third innings of scoreless relief. He walked one and struck out one.
Grant Wood was 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs and an RBI for Murray State (27-29).