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The 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship continues with three scheduled games on Friday.
The schedule includes Tennessee Tech/Morehead State, Southeast Missouri/Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky against a to-be-determined opponent.
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 9: #1 Tennessee Tech 10, #3 Morehead State 5
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Game 10: #4 Jacksonville State 11, #2 Southeast Missouri 0
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Game 11: #6 Eastern Kentukcy 11, #4 Jacksonville State 8 (14)
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#1 TENNESSEE TECH 10, #3 MOREHEAD STATE 5
OXFORD, Ala. - For the second straight year, the No. 18 Tennessee Tech baseball team advanced to the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament behind an inspired effort over Morehead State.
The Golden Eagles (48-7) made history in the 10-5 victory over the Eagles (34-24), breaking the league's single-season wins record with their 48th of the year. The 48 Ws represent the highest total in the nation and extend the program record, which was topped in a 12-6 decision over Eastern Kentucky to clinch the OVC regular season title on May 11.
Tech walked off the bus ready to swing the bats, building a large lead early and letting a combination of fantastic pitching and clutch defense carry the team to its second straight OVC Tournament title game appearance.
It was apparent very early that the nation's top offense was ready to play, as center fielder Alex Junior led off the bottom half of the first with a five-pitch walk. After a quick out, junior Kevin Strohschein continued his hot start to tournament play, blistering a single through the left side to put runners on the corners.
Senior first baseman Chase Chambers followed with a single to right field, driving in the first run of the game and tying the program's single-season RBI record with his 76th of the year. A pair of Morehead miscues (throwing error and wild pitch) allowed Strohschein to score and Chambers to move on to third base before John Ham drew a walk. Shortstop David Garza then made it a 3-0 lead with a sacrifice fly ball to center field.
Morehead answered in the second after being shut down in the first by Tech hurler Marcus Evey. In the first, Evey hit the leadoff man on the first pitch of the game, but quickly responded with a strikeout, first-pitch fly out and first-pitch ground out.
The Eagles loaded the bases to start the second, but after an RBI single drove in the team's first run, Evey turned the page. He induced a 4-6-3 double play ball turned perfectly by Ham, Garza and Chambers. A second run scored on the play, willing sacrifice for the pair of outs. Evey then forced a week pop out to Ham in shallow right field to end the frame.
Tech jumped right back out with the sticks, with senior Brennon Kaleiwahea leading off the bottom half with a single up the middle. After falling behind 0-2 and fouling off the third pitch he saw, fellow senior Collin Harris unleashed a heavy hack to blast a two-run home run to left center field for a 5-2 lead. It marked his 10th long ball of the year, making him the sixth Golden Eagle to reach double-digits in dingers on the year, easily the best mark in the nation.
The Golden Eagles blew the game wide open in the third after a scoreless top half flung by Evey, starting with a leadoff single by Chambers. After Ham drew his second free pass of the contest, Garza unloaded on the first pitch he saw, crushing a three-run bomb to left center field. The senior's 16th round-tripper of the year, the most in the nation by a shortstop, provided an 8-3 lead. And Tech wasn't done just yet.
Junior Nick Osborne followed with a single up the middle and then stole second base prior to the first out of the frame. He would advance to third on the ground out, eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly ball to left field by Harris, who just missed his second homer of the contest.
Tech turned another 4-6-3 double play in the fourth and followed it up with a relatively rare double play in the fifth. After a sacrifice fly provided the first out and left runners on first and second base, Evey induced a line drive to right field. Osborne made a relatively easy catch and then rocketed a throw to Chambers at first base to double up the runner at first to end the frame and scoring threat.
Reliever Colton Provey took over on the bump in the sixth with no outs and two men on, beginning the run of a brilliant appearance out of the bullpen. He forced three, weak fly balls in-a-row, including one each to left center field, foul territory in left and to the shortstop.
He induced three more fly balls in the seventh for a 1-2-3 inning (including an incredible leaping grab by Harris in left field) and then received yet another 9-3 double play in the eighth. After issuing a leadoff walk, Provey forced a routine fly ball to right field that Osborne camped under and caught for the easy first out. The junior then fired a beebee to Chambers at first, catching the runner off guard and just beating him back for the team's fourth double play of the game.
Tech gained an insurance run in the eighth, with Harris leading off the frame with an infield single. He would eventually come around to score after a sac bunt, advancing on a fly ball out and then a wild pitch.
Provey managed one more out in the contest while Morehead State scored a run before Tech turned to redshirt freshman Tyler Sylvester for the final two outs. He induced a quick ground ball out that brought in the Eagles' second run of the frame and then forced a game-ending pop up to shortstop.
Evey picked up his seventh victory of the season after tossing five innings and holding one of the hottest offenses in the country to just three runs and five hits. Provey allowed just two runs, including one unearned, in three and one third innings of work.
Garza finished the contest 1-for-1 with two walks, four RBI and a home run while Harris completed the day 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI.
#4 JACKSONVILLE STATE 11, #2 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
OXFORD, Ala. - Senior pitcher Colton Pate picked a perfect time to throw a complete game when his Jacksonville State club needed a great effort in an elimination contest against Southeast Missouri on Friday in the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Choccolocco Park.
All he did was turn in JSU's first complete game since JSU's improbable run to the OVC Tournament title in 2014. Former Gamecock Casey Antley went the distance in JSU's 13-2 win over Eastern Illinois. It's the second shutout for JSU in an OVC Tournament contest as it blanked Eastern Kentucky in its initial OVC postseason contest in 2004. Pate's shutout performance was the first complete game shutout since former Gamecock Hunter Rivers blanked SIUE on April 30, 2011 (7-inning game). It is JSU's first nine-inning complete game shutout by a JSU pitcher since joining the league in 2004. JSU has now accumulated its eighth shutout of the season and the second against SEMO in 2018.
Pate, from Lincoln, Alabama, limited the Redhawks to two hits and registered six strikeouts in the outing. He did not surrender his lone walk on his stat line until the eighth inning. In two starts against SEMO this season, he has tossed 17.2 innings and allowed one run on six hits and collected 15 strikeouts.
Pate received run support from the start as JSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead on sophomore Andrew Naismith's two-out, three-run home run to left center field. Naismith was one of four Gamecocks with multiple hits with an RBI double later in the contest. Senior Taylor Hawthorne finished 4-for-5 on the day, including a towering solo home run that started the four-run fifth for JSU. The Prattville, Alabama outfielder had a pair of singles and a double.
Jax State pounced on six SEMO pitchers for 14 hits on the day. Freshman Cole Frederick and senior Nolan Greckel posted two hits each in the win.
#6 EASTERN KENTUCKY 11, #4 JACKSONVILLE STATE 8 (14)
OXFORD, Ala. - With a runner on second, Logan Stephens showed bunt, pulled back and then looped a double into center field to break a tie in the 14th inning as the Eastern Kentucky University baseball team beat Jacksonville State University, 11-8, in the longest game in Ohio Valley Conference Tournament history on Friday/Saturday at Choccolocco Park.
EKU is among the final three teams remaining in the OVC Tournament. The Colonels (30-30) will face Morehead State on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. The winner will advance to the championship round against Tennessee Tech. That game will also be played on Saturday, at 5 p.m. ET.
Trailing 8-6 and having not registered a hit in the fifth, sixth or seventh innings, EKU rallied in the eighth. Daniel McFarland reached on an error to start the inning. Two batters later Cornell Nixon drew a one-out walk. Will Johnson followed with a single to load the bases. Nick Howie then sent a 1-1 pitch into right center to plate two runners. The third was thrown out at the plate.
Alex Holderbach led off the top of the 14th with a double down the left field line. Stephens stepped to the plate and looked to move the runner to third with bunt on the first pitch, but missed the ball. On the second pitch he showed bunt again, however when the shortstop moved to cover second base Stephens brought the bat back and hit a double to left center to score Holderbach and break the 8-8 tie.
Two batters later, Ryland Kerr brought home two insurance runs with a single to left center. Casey Collins, who had pitched a spotless bottom of the 13th inning, retired the first two batters in the bottom of the 14th before a single kept the game going. Collins got the next batter to fly out to end the marathon.
The game set a new record for the longest game in OVC Tournament history, lasting five hours and 33 minutes. It also broke the previous tournament game record of 13 innings.
With the win, the Colonels secured the program’s first 30-win season since 2012 and only the fifth 30-win campaign since 2000.
Sixth seeded Eastern Kentucky grabbed an early lead before watching JSU storm back.
McFarland’s RBI ground out in the second got Eastern on the board. Johnson made it 2-0 in the third when he scored on a fielding error. A sacrifice bunt from Chris Botsoe and a run scoring single through the left side by Kerr capped the three run third inning and pushed EKU in front 4-0.
The No. 4 seed Gamecocks came right back in the bottom of the third and scored seven runs to swing the momentum their way. Isaac Alexander’s grand slam turned a 4-3 Eastern Kentucky lead into a 7-4 deficit.
Eastern closed within one by scoring two in the top of the fourth. Howie scored Nixon with a single to right center. Johnson scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 7-6.
Aaron Ochsenbein came in to pitch in the seventh and provided five and one-third innings of scoreless relief before leaving after the 12th inning. He allowed just three hits, walked two and struck out eight.
Howie finished 4-for-7 with a run and three RBIs. Johnson was 2-for-6 with a walk and two runs scored. Nixon went 1-for-4 and scored twice.
Alexander had a 2-for-4 day with two walks, a run and four RBIs for Jacksonville State. Eight different Gamecocks scored one run each.