WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
Murray State 6, @Arkansas-Pine Bluff 3
Marshall 7, Eastern Kentucky (Chillicothe, Ohio)
@Southern Illinois 2,
Belmont 1 (10 innings)
@Tennessee Tech 10, East Tennessee 6
@Jacksonville State 9, Alabama State 2
MURRAY STATE 6, ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 3
PINE BLUFF, Ark. - The pitching duo of Alex Gordon and Sheldon Baxter limited Arkansas-Pine Bluff to just eight hits as Murray State defeated the Golden Lions 6-3 in the second game of a two-game series Wednesday afternoon at the Tori Hunter Baseball Complex.
Gordon (1-2) made his first start in nearly six weeks, and didn’t disappoint. The senior allowed three runs on seven hits and six strikeouts over 5.1 innings.
Freshman Sheldon Baxter closed out the victory to earn his first collegiate save. The lefty allowed just one hit over the final 3.2 innings.
The Golden Lions (18-27) got on the board in the first inning after stringing together three hits. Kirby Campbell drove in the run with a bases-loaded single through the right side.
The Breds (18-27) came back in the second inning and took advantage of a throwing error to gain the lead for good. Taylor Mathews started things by being hit by a pitch and going to second on a wild pitch. After Ty Stetson walked, Brandon Elliott’s grounder to short was thrown away at second base, allowing both runners on base to score.
MSU increased the lead in the sixth as Brandon Eggenschwiler singled and Mike Kozlowski drew a walk. With runners on second and third and two outs, Dalton West delivered a two-run single up the middle. A throwing error moved West to second on the play, and later scored when a ground ball went through the legs of the shortstop.
UAPB was able to score two runs in the home-half of the inning as a wild pitch on a third strike was followed by a base hit. Patrick Phillips plated both runners with a double to left field.
The Breds pushed the lead back to three in the seventh without getting a hit. Stetson drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second on a sacrifice bunt from Elliott. A wild pitch moved the runner to third and Eggenschwiler drove him in with a hard groundout off the leg of the pitcher.
Didier Landry (0-3) took the loss for the Golden Lions after allowing four runs, two earned, on four hits and four strikeouts over five innings.
West led the offense by going 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Eggenschwiler added two hits, and Stetson scored a pair of runs.
MARSHALL 7, EASTERN KENTUCKY 4
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – Eastern Kentucky lost to Marshall, 7-4, on Wednesday at V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Marshall (18-26) took the early lead when Alfredo Brito scored on a wild pitch and Sergio Leon drove in a run with a double to right center in the second inning. Eastern (15-27) got one back in the top of the third on Luke Wurzlebacher’s sacrifice fly.
Eric Escobedo’s RBI single in the third pushed the lead back to two, 3-1, for Marshall. The Thundering Herd built a 5-run cushion with three runs in the fourth. Gray Stafford had a two-run double in the inning.
Austin Grisham drove in Bryan Soloman with a single to center in the fifth inning to close the gap to 6-2. Alex Hughes made it 6-3 in the sixth with an RBI triple off the wall in center field. A sacrifice fly by Doug Teegarden in the seventh cut the deficit to two, 6-4, and made it three straight innings with a run for the Colonels.
Stafford scored on a throwing error in the bottom of the eighth to seal the victory for Marshall. Stafford had three hits in four at bats, two runs scored and two RBIs. Brito finished 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI.
Grisham finished 2-for-5 with an RBI. Kenny Hostrander went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Matt Lynch (0-5) started and suffered the loss. He allowed three runs on five hits in three innings. The junior walked three and struck out one. Alex Thackston (1-3) picked up his first win of the season after allowing two runs on five hits over five and two-thirds innings. He walked one and struck out two. Josh King earned the save after pitching a scoreless ninth inning.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 2, BELMONT 1 (10)
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Belmont Baseball (30-13, 16-5) dropped their midweek contest, 2-1 in extra innings at Southern Illinois on Wednesday.
Jared Breen (Marietta, Ga.) hit a two-out double to the left field corner in the top of the sixth to get things started for the Bruins. Judah Akers (Cookeville, Tenn.) followed with an RBI single to right field to put the Bruins on the board first.
The Salukis put together a threat in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly from Brock Harding tied the game at 1-1.
Scott Moses (Englewood, Tenn.) led off the tenth with a bunt single and Ray Eastman (Oro Valley, Ariz.) reached on a fielder's choice before Alec Diamond (Kennesaw, Ga.) drew a walk to load the bases. The Bruins were unable to make anything happen and left the runners stranded.
In the bottom half of the inning, with a single from Austin Montgomery, SIU took the 2-1 win.
Jordan Deal (Brownsburg, Ind.) recorded a career long outing of five innings. He gave up three hits, walked two and matched his career high of two strikeouts.
After making his 33rd appearance, Jessie Snodgrass (Lebanon, Tenn.) is now second all-time in single season appearances.
TENNESSEE TECH 10, EAST TENNESSEE STATE 6
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - There was no way. There was just no way the Golden Eagles (33-12) were going to let the East Tennessee State Buccaneers (25-19) shut them out for a second time this season. The Tennessee Tech baseball team made sure of it, defeating the Bucs, 10-6, Wednesday evening.
After falling behind 2-0 after the first inning, it seemed ETSU was destined to once again, shut down the Golden Eagle offense and pitch another shutout. Turns out, no such luck for the Bucs as Brandon Thomasson smacked a screaming line drive over the left field fence in the bottom of the second to set the tone for the rest of the contest. James Abraham tied the game up with a sacrifice fly and the Golden Eagles never looked back after the second inning.
In the bottom of the third, Tech really began to come alive, collecting three straight hits to open the inning. Zach Zarzour, Austin Wulf, and Zach Stephens all recorded singles, and Stephens drove in Zarzour for the first run of the third. Daniel Miles drove in the second run, hitting a sac fly to left center field. After a base hit by Dylan Bosheers, Cookeville native Tevis Sherfield drove in the third run with a single to second base. Abraham finished the scoring in the third with an RBI single to center field.
Stephens added to the Tech lead in the fourth, roping an RBI double to left center field to push the Golden Eagles out from 7-3.
The sixth inning essentially put the game out of reach as Tech put up two runs in a monster way. Following a quick ground out by Stephens, Thomasson connected on a 2-0 fastball, jettisoning it down the left line and way out of sight for his second dinger of the game. Miles stepped to the plate and followed suit, pulverizing his own solo shot to left center field to give the Golden Eagles back-to-back home runs for the fourth time this season. Miles has been a part of each of those instances as two have come with Thomasson and two have come with Bosheers.
The Bucs put three across the board the rest of the contest as the Golden Eagles added one more run to mark their third consecutive game with at least 10 runs. The win marked the 33rd of the season for Tech, putting the team just six away from the single-season program record of 39.
Junior righty Garrett Baugh (4-1) earned his fourth win of the season, tossing five innings while allowing six hits, three earned runs, and no walks. He struck out four ETSU batters.
Thomasson moved to the top of the Ohio Valley Conference home run list, adding his 11th and 12th dingers of the season. Stephens ranks second in the league with 11 moonshots and Daniel Miles is currently tied for third with 10 home runs.
Stephens led the squad with three RBI in the contest, grabbing two hits in five at-bats. Thomasson, Miles, and Abraham all drove in two runs apiece while Zarzour and Thomasson accounted for three runs scored each.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 9, ALABAMA STATE 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Andrew Bishop had a pair of hits and drove in four runs to lead Jacksonville State to a 9-2 win over Alabama State as the Gamecocks swept the season series against the Hornets on Wednesday at Rudy Abbott Field.
Left-hander Adam Polk (3-5) scattered three hits and had three strikeouts in five solid innings on the mound to earn the win as five Gamecock pitchers allowed just four hits in the game. Anthony Ricciardi (3-6) suffered the loss for Alabama State after giving up five runs in three innings.
Jax State (26-19) took an early lead after scoring three runs in the first inning as Adam Miller had a RBI single, while Paschal Petrongolo and Bishop both had sacrifice flies to give the Gamecocks a 3-0 lead.
Alabama State scored in the third inning as Branden Castro scored on a JSU error to cut the lead to 3-1, but the Gamecocks answered in the home half of the inning.
Miller led off with a single up the middle and Coty Blanchard drew a one-out walk before Bishop followed with a triple to right center to drive in both runs and give JSU a 5-1 lead. The Gamecocks added a run in the fourth on a RBI single by Griff Gordon, and another run in the fifth as Petrongolo scored a wild pitch to build a 7-1 advantage.
Jax State extended the lead to 9-1 in the seventh inning after Bishop had a RBI double and later came around to score on an Alabama State error. The Hornets scored an unearned run in the eighth inning for the final margin.
Miller finished with two hits and scored two runs to go with Bishop's two hits to lead the Gamecocks, while Richard Amion had two of ASU's four hits in the game.
Blanchard extended his hitting streak to a season-long 13 games with a single in the eighth inning, and he currently has the longest active hitting streak in the Ohio Valley Conference.