FRIDAY'S SCORES
SIUE 8, @Morehead State 4
@Belmont 9, Eastern Illinois 5
Austin Peay 11, @Tennessee Tech 4
UT Martin 10, @Southeast Missouri 3
@Murray State 9, Western Illinois 3
SIUE 8, MOREHEAD STATE 4
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Brett Johnson hit two home runs, including his 20th of the season, and SIUE baseball won the opener of a key Ohio Valley Conference series, downing Morehead State 8-4 Friday.
The Cougars improved to 10-9 in the OVC and 23-23 overall. The win moved SIUE into a tie with Morehead State, which also is 10-9 in the OVC, four fourth in the league standings. The Eagles are 22-25 overall.
Brant Glidewell (4-2) returned to the rotation after missing a week and tossed five innings, allowing two earned runs, four total, on seven hits. He did not walk a batter. He struck out three.
Kyle Dixon and Jake Bockenstedt combined for four scoreless innings. Dixon did not allow a hit and struck out two. Bockenstedt allowed one hit and struck out four.
Johnson led off the game with his 19th home run of the year, before Morehead State answered with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the inning. The Eagles loaded the bases in the inning and left two on when the inning ended
The Cougars took the lead for good with a four-run third inning. Ole Arnston hit a two-run home run in the inning. Richie Well drove home a run with a sacrifice fly and the Cougars got another on a wild pitch to lead 5-2.
Jackson Feltner homered, and Alex Jacobs added an RBI double, for Morehead State to trim the lead to 5-4 in the fifth inning.
Johnson connected on a two-run shot, his 20th of the year, as part of a three-run sixth inning for SIUE. It is the fifth time this year that Johnson has homered twice in the same game.
Johnson drove in three runs for the SIUE. Johnson, Connor Kifer and Josh Ohl had two hits apiece for the Cougars, who outhit the Eagles 9-8.
BELMONT 9, EASTERN ILLINOIS 5
NASHVILLE - Early offense powered the Belmont University baseball team to a 9-5 win over Eastern Illinois on Friday night at E.S. Rose Park.
Saturday's game had originally been scheduled to start at 2 p.m., but has been moved up to 11 a.m. due to impending weather in the Nashville area later in the day.
Belmont (33-17, 14-5 OVC) put up three runs in the first inning and four runs in the second inning to establish a 7-1 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the night.
Andy Bean (W, 9-1) picked up his ninth win of the season on the mound, moving him into a tie for 2nd in program history for wins in a season. The sophomore allowed three runs in five innings on the hill, limiting the top offense in the conference and keeping Belmont in the lead once the Bruins gained the advantage in the opening frame.
Brodey Heaton, the reigning OVC Player of the Week, stayed hot at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a triple, a double, and three RBIs. Logan Jarvis finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and Guy Lipscomb and John Behrends finished with two hits each as well.
After Eastern Illinois took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Belmont responded with a three-run frame that saw Lipscomb and Heaton deliver back-to-back two-out doubles to tie the game at 1-1 before Jarvis punched a single into center field to score Heaton and Tommy Crider and give the Bruins a 3-1 advantage.
Belmont was able to put runners on second and third base with one out in the bottom of the second inning before a lightning delay forced both teams off the diamond for 30 minutes.
Once play resumed, Heaton brought the thunder with a two-RBI triple to center field to make it 5-1 in favor of the home side.
Not to be outdone, Tommy Crider dug in and drilled a two-run, no-doubt home run to left field and give Belmont a 7-1 lead.
After Bean exited following the fifth inning, Dominic Baratta (SV, 1) delivered four stellar innings in relief to earn his first save as a Bruin. Baratta shut out the Panthers until there were two outs in the ninth inning, where Eastern Illinois got a two-RBI triple to prevent the sophomore lefty from achieving a blank slate.
Across four frames, Baratta scattered just three hits and struck out three, walking none.
Belmont's final two runs came in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly from Mason Landers that drove in John Behrends and an RBI single from Jarvis that brought in Heaton.
Thanks to Southeast Missouri's 10-3 loss to the University of Tennessee at Martin on Friday night, Belmont now stands alone in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with five conference games left in the regular season.
Belmont's 33 wins are the most since the Bruins went 33-27 in 2016.
AUSTIN PEAY 11, TENNESSEE TECH 4
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - First baseman Ty DeLancey, left fielder Gino Avros, and catcher Jack Alexander each hit two-run home runs as Austin Peay State University’s baseball team powered past Tennessee Tech, 11-4, in Ohio Valley Conference action on Quillen Field at Bush Stadium.
After a two-hour, 13-minute weather delay, Tennessee Tech (23-23, 7-12 OVC) broke a 2-2 tie courtesy catcher Hayden Gilliland’s solo home run in the fourth inning off Governors starter Tyler Delong.
But the Golden Eagles lead wouldn’t last beyond Austin Peay’s (19-31, 10-9 OVC) next turn at the plate. Avros singled with one out and reached third on an error and a passed ball. Center fielder TJ Foreman then doubled to left field, driving in Avros to tie the game. DeLancey would break the tie with a long-distance homer to right field, giving APSU a 5-3 lead.
The Governors would extend their lead one inning later. Right fielder Jeremy Wagner singled to start the frame. After a strikeout, Avros took a 2-1 pitch deep to left field for another two-run home run and a 7-3 APSU lead.
Austin Peay sealed the win with a four-run eighth inning, beginning with Foreman and DeLancey each doubling in a run. Alexander then blasted his 10th home run of 2022 deep to center field for the Govs’ third two-run home run and an 11-4 lead.
Austin Peay posted 13 hits in the win with 10 going for extra bases. The Govs posted a season-high tying seven doubles, Foreman hitting two, and three home runs.
Avros finished the night 3-for-5 with two RBI, three runs scored, a double and home run. DeLancey was 2-for-4 with three RBI, a double and home run. Foreman and Alexander also had two hits each.
Delong (4-2), who returned to the mound after the long weather delay, picked up the win with five innings of work. He held Tennessee Tech to four runs on seven hits and four walks.
Reliever Luke Brown allowed a single to the first batter he faced but then did not allow another baserunner, retiring 10-straight batters to end the game for his season’s third save.
Tennessee Tech reliever Matthew Meadows (0-2), who took over after the delay, suffered the loss after allowing three runs on four hits over his inning of work.
Golden Eagles left fielder Jason Hinchman was 1-for-2 with a two-run double in the third inning to tie the game early. Center fielder Austin Turner and right fielder Ryan Guardino had two hits each.
UT MARTIN 10, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Beginning their eighth and final Ohio Valley Conference weekend with a statement performance in enemy territory, the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team quieted the Southeast Missouri Redhawks on Friday evening with a 14-hit bludgeoning over the current top seed in the league standings, concluding the series opener on a 7-0 explosion over the final four innings to reach a 10-3 triumph and their second OVC victory in a true road setting.
Not only were the UTM bats sizzling over the latter portion of the contest, but the Skyhawk pitching tandem of Seth Petry and Tucker Reed did their part in ensuring that SEMO quickly ran out of gas. Surrendering only four hits to one of the most potent offenses in the conference while striking out 10 batters, UT Martin's sensational defensive effort helped concoct a delicate balance of offensive dexterity with an unyielding barricade on the other side.
As the game slipped into a 3-3 stalemate following a pair of Redhawk runs in the bottom of the 5th, Petry and Reed wrapped a suffocating knot around the SEMO batting order to the tune of zero hits the rest of the way for the home unit. Meanwhile, the Skyhawks' offensive progression – while already steady through the first half of the battle – was about to skyrocket and open the floodgates for a seven-run W.
First baseman Ethan Whitley emphatically put the visitors on the board with a three-run blast over the centerfield wall in the 4th frame, the second time in as many appearances that the fifth-year senior registered a homer of the three-score variety, his fifth HR of 2022 and 35th of his career to officially move into a tie for second-place all-time in UT Martin baseball history.
In his next trip to the plate two innings later, Whitley immediately severed the 3-3 tie with his fourth RBI of the night – just one short of a career-best for a single outing – wrangling in Casey Harford on a base hit for the second of three runs brought in from the shortstop, who himself went two-for-three for his 18th multi-hit performance of the semester.
Only the first of a four-run sequence in the top of the 6th, Whitley's aforementioned score-inducing single paved the way for an RBI-double by rightfielder Wil LaFollette in the next at-bat. Infielder Nate Self made it three consecutive swings that brought at least one sprinter to home base, bringing in both LaFollette and Whitley for his 5th hit in the past two meetings.
Not satisfied with a 7-3 advantage, UT Martin thrusted the lead to its final resting place of seven with a three-run burst in the 9th, opened on a run-scoring double from freshman DH Blaze Bell. Lead-off man Will Smith – who tallied that run – managed to extend a six-game hitting streak just moments earlier, the 13th consecutive game that the preseason all-league performer has managed to get on base at least once.
Once Bell and Harford moved into scoring position to continue rubbing salt in the wound, leftfielder Jack Culumovic joined the party by securing the team's fourth double of Game 1 to score those two runners on the 118th extra-base connection of the spring.
After filling in for Petry's exquisite 5.1 innings of work, Reed unleashed a mesmerizing string of K's to leave the Redhawks with an increasingly-miniscule chance of mustering a comeback bid. Altogether, Reed retired six batters in a row (including the entire side in the bottom of the 8th) to put a lock on SEMO's offensive output by holding the opponent without a single hit over the game's last four innings.
MURRAY STATE 9, WESTERN ILLINOIS 3
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State (27-21) baseball grabbed game one of the series versus Western Illinois 9-3 on Friday night at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky. The win gives MSU 20 home victories this season as the team becomes just the second Ohio Valley Conference side with 20 or more home wins this season (SEMO).
Bryson Bloomer led the Racers offense with four more RBIs in the game to bring his season total to 60. Bloomer collected three hits in the matchup to boost his batting average to .284 on the year. Jacob Pennington launched his eighth home run of the year in the three-run variety to take sole possession of second-most home runs on the team. Jake Slunder posted two hits and three runs scored to go with his 23rd stolen base of the year. Jordan Holly rounded out the multi-hit performances with two hits of his own while also scoring two runs.
Hayden Wynja got the start on the mound for Murray State and once again proved to be effective. The reigning OVC Co-Pitcher of the week went 5.2 innings pitched while allowing just two hits, and three runs, all of which were unearned. The left-hander struck out six to raise his season total to 74 while lowering his overall ERA to 3.69. Malik Pogue earned the save in relief for MSU going 3.1 innings pitched and allowing no runs. Pogue struck out two and did not allow a walk in the outing while lowering his season ERA to a team best 3.38.