FRIDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 12, Tennessee Tech 10
@Morehead State 14-7, Murray State 10-27
@Belmont 11, Southeast Missouri 5
Eastern Illinois 6, @SIUE 3
Jacksonville State 13, @UT Martin 12
Austin Peay, @Evansville (cancelled)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 12, TENNESSEE TECH 10
RICHMOND, Ky. - One night after a walk-off home run from Taylor Blair, the Eastern Kentucky University baseball team continued its hot-hitting Friday afternoon in a 12-10 win against the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech.
Luke Wurzelbacher put the Colonels (21-28, 12-16 OVC) on the scoreboard first with an RBI double in the first inning. Wurzelbacher added on to his day with a home run in the third inning. Overall, he went 5-for-5 on the day with a team high of three RBIs.
Eastern broke its season high in hits with 20. Six of the Colonel starters chipped in with multiple hits. Ben Fisher added four hits while Kyle Nowlin posted three base knocks. EKU’s previous season high was 19 hits against Jacksonville State on May 3.
Kenny Hostrander hit his third home run of the season in the fourth inning to give the Colonels a 5-2 lead.
The Golden Eagles (24-27, 15-14) put together a two-out charge in the fifth inning, scoring six runs and briefly taking the lead, 8-7.
The Colonels responded in the bottom of the sixth with a four-run outburst to take the lead for good. A Wurzelbacher single scored Mandy Alvarez to make the score, 9-8. Fisher and Logan Starnes added RBIs later in the inning.
Ryan Flick led the Golden Eagles in offense by going 4-for-5 with six runs batted in.
Logan Hershenow (5-7) received the win and Cody Creamer added on with his first save of the year.
MOREHEAD STATE 14-7, MURRAY STATE 10-27
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Tyler Lawrence set a single-game program record with four home runs in game two of a doubleheader Friday against Morehead State. The four homers tie the OVC record set by Morehead's Jamey Bennett in 1979 and Scott Pruneau of SEMO in 1992. Anthony Bayus began the day's doubleheader by becoming the first Racer since Mike Kozlowski on March 16, 2013 to hit for the cycle, in game one against the Eagles.
The Racers fell in game one of the day, 14-10 and exploded offensively in game two for a 27-7 victory. The 27 runs scored is just four away from the school record of 31 runs scored way back in 1950 against Lipscomb.
Lawrence went 5-for-5 in the second game with 11 RBIs. The 11 ribbies is one shy of tying the OVC and school record of 12 set by Dave Winder in 1986. Lawrence's first homer of the day was a two-run shot to left center in the first inning. His second of the game came in the top of the second and was also a two-run blast, this time to dead center. After a single in the third that scored Derek Yoder, he blasted a three-run shot in the fifth, putting him at eight ribbies for the game.
Lawrence was next able to bring home Yoder again with a sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the seventh, giving him his ninth RBI of the game. In his final at-bat of the game, Lawrence broke the school record and tied the conference mark with his fourth long ball, a two-run shot to right field, giving him his 10th and 11th RBI of the day.
In the win, Yoder tied the school record with six runs scored in the game. Yoder went 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of RBIs, drew a walk and was hit by a pitch three times. Downey joined Lawrence with five hits in the game and also drove-in two runs and scored four of his own.
In all, eight Racers had multiple hits in the victory, totaling 26 as a team, just two away from tying the school record mark of 28 set back in 2009 against North Dakota State. Clay Kelly, Nick Moore and Dalton West all collected three hits in game two. Bayus and Kipp Moore added two hits each. Kelly had four RBIs in the night cap.
Brad Boegel picked up the win in the game for the Racers. Boegel went six innings and allowed four runs off of three hits while striking-out seven batters. Brandon Hicks struck-out five of his own while picking up the save in relief, pitching three solid innings.
Bayus tied a career-high with four hits and four RBIs in the first game. After reaching on a fielder's choice in his first at-bat, Bayus got going with a single to left in the third inning. A two-run home run to left field came in the fifth from Bayus and tied the game at 5-5. Bayus then led-off the seventh with a double to left center and completed the cycle in the eighth with a triple down the right field line that rolled to the fence. Bayus drove in two runs with the triple, cutting the Racers' deficit to 14-9 in game one.
Rick Linton blasted his second career home run and first of the season in the top of the ninth inning. The solo shot to left center put the final score at 14-10. Yoder went 3-for-4 in the loss while Lawrence and McGowan both had multi-hit games going 2-for-5. Bayus, Downey and Lawrence all scored twice in game one.
Lawrence and Yoder moved into a tie for fourth-place on the all-time single-season games played list, each appearing in their 56th game of the season in game two of the day. Nine MSU student-athletes suited up for the final time for the Racers on the day in the season finale.
BELMONT 11, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 5
NASHVILLE - Southeast Missouri baseball fell to Belmont University (27-26, 15-13 OVC) in game two of the three-game series Friday, 11-5.
Murray State defeated Morehead State in game two of their doubleheader Friday, 27-7, securing the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Regular Season Championship for Southeast Missouri. The Redhawks locked up the No. 1 seed in next week's OVC Tournament with Thursday's win over Belmont.
This is Southeast's second-straight OVC title and third overall (2002, 2014, 2015). The Redhawks are 32-21 on the season and 21-8 in OVC play.
With Branden Boggetto on second and Jason Blum on third, Andy Lennington singled to center to drive in Blum and give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
A two-RBI base hit to left by Tyler Walsh in the bottom of the inning gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead. On the play, Tyler Fullerton was thrown out at third to end the inning.
A three-run second inning put the Redhawks back on top, 4-2. With two on and no out, Ryan Rippee singled through the left side to plate Hunter Leeper. After a walk to Andy Lack loaded the bases, Trevor Ezell hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Cole Ferguson and giving the lead back to Southeast. Blum drove in Rippee with a single just fair down the left field line to make it 4-2.
Belmont responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead, 6-4. An error by Lack in the inning allowed three runs to score on the play.
Two runs, one each on RBI base hits for Belmont in the fourth, made it 8-4 Bruins.
Southeast cut the lead to 8-5 in the seventh inning when Ezell scored on a double play.
Belmont plated a trio of runs all with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning to widen the lead to 11-5 on the Redhawks.
Southeast was outhit 13-8 in the game and each team committed an error.
Rippee was 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored Friday. Five other Redhawks all had one hit apiece.
Alex Winkelman (3-3) suffered the loss. WInkelman pitched six and two-thirds innings, allowing all 11 runs on 11 hits. Winkelman fanned six batters and walked four. Alex Siddle pitched a third of an inning while Garret Stockton pitched one complete inning in the eighth.
Five different Belmont hitters had two hits each Friday. Walsh had three RBI on the day while Matt Beaty had two. Alec Diamond, the leadoff hitter, scored three runs.
Patrick McGrath (8-4) earned the win. McGrath threw six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. McGrath threw four shutout innings against the Redhawks after the second inning. Matthew Kinney earned his sixth save. Kinney pitched three innings of nearly perfect baseball to close the game; Kinney struck out four batters of the eight he faced.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 6, SIUE 3
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Matt Wivinis was sharp on the mound and Eastern Illinois provided timely hitting as the Panthers evened their weekend series with SIU Edwardsville beating the Cougars 6-3 on Friday night.
EIU improved to 13-35, 9-20 in the OVC. SIUE fell to 19-28, 18-11 in the OVC. The schools will wrap up the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. in what will be the final collegiate game for the Panthers eight seniors.
Wivinis (3-8) pitched 7.2 innings allowing seven hits while striking out eight batters. He allowed three runs before Chase Thurston closed the game to pick up his fifth save of the season.
Alec Saikal gave the Cougars a lead with an RBI in the first. Wivinis did not allow another run until the bottom of the seventh when Saikal had a two-run homer to finish the day 2-for-4 at the plate.
EIU tied the game in the fourth on a Demetre Taylor home run. Taylor came back with another home run in the eighth as he finished the day 3-for-4.
Joseph Duncan gave EIU a 2-1 lead in the fifth with an RBI single. The Panthers had three runs in the seventh with Adam Casson driving in a run with a sacrifice fly. Hunter Morris and Dane Sauer had RBI singles.
Jarrett Bednar (2-6) suffered the loss for the Cougars.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 13, UT MARTIN 12
MARTIN, Tenn. - For the 12th consecutive season Jacksonville State will be in the six-team field for the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament next week as JSU held on for a 13-12 win over UT Martin on Friday afternoon at Skyhawk Field.
JSU needed two wins entering the final weekend of the regular season to clinch a spot in the field as it stands at 15-14 in the OVC and 29-25 overall. The Gamecocks will go for its third sweep of the season and second straight on the road on Saturday at 12 p.m. UTM and JSU were scheduled to play a twinbill on Friday to get ahead of the pending rain on Saturday, but thunderstorms in the West Tennessee area prevented the two clubs from finishing up the three game series. UTM (17-35, 9-20 OVC) will honor its senior class prior to Saturday's contest.
The Skyhawks pushed JSU to its limits on Friday after nearly erasing an 11-2 deficit before falling a run short of extending the game. It wasn't the cleanest game for the two squads as they combined for eight errors and both pitching staffs gave up 37 hits and 25 runs. Defensive woes plagued UTM in one inning as the Gamecocks squelched a 1-0 Skyhawk lead in the third inning. Jax State posted seven runs on five hits and was gifted four times in the inning as UTM had four fielding miscues in the inning.
The big hit in the JSU third was a three-run blast by junior Elliot McCummings after the Gamecocks had plated four runs in the frame. JSU touched UTM starter Carter Smith for 10 runs on nine hits in his five innings of work. Junior Gavin Golsan had one of his two RBI in the big inning with a single to the left side of the infield. Golsan matched freshman Taylor Hawthorne with a team-high three hits in the win. The Trussville, Alabama-native also established a new JSU single season for stolen bases as he now has 37 steals in 2015. Junior Paschal Petrongolo and Tyler Gamble also delivered RBI in the inning with a sacrifice fly and a single respectively. Petrongolo finished the day with three runs driven in on just one hit, which would come in the next inning with an RBI double.
JSU's other two runs in the three-run fourth scored on senior Ryan Sebra's base hit up the middle, scoring Petrongolo and Daniel. The Gamecocks posted their 11th run of the contest in the sixth on Petrongolo's third RBI as he plated Golsan.
Jax State found its Saturday starter midway through the conference season in freshman Jake Walsh and the Melbourne, Florida-right hander delivered another quality start for JSU. Walsh worked around early trouble in all five innings he was on the mound as UTM turned in leadoff singles off of Walsh, but could not produce anything until the sixth.
Walsh ran in to trouble in the sixth and it started with the long ball. The first three Skyhawks to come to the plate in the sixth delivered solo shots over the wall to begin a six-run sixth. In the inning, UTM strung together six hits and took advantage of two JSU errors for the big inning and cut the deficit to 11-8. UTM carded another home run in the eighth off of JSU's Justin Hoyt to trim the Gamecock lead to 11-9 heading in to the JSU ninth.
Needing insurance runs, JSU pushed the lead to 13-9 with four runs in the final at bat. Hawthorne delivered an RBI single and Peyton Williams scored on a ground out.
JSU senior closer Travis came in to get the final two outs of the eighth and worked around trouble in the ninth. The Skyhawks belted their sixth home run in the last four innings with a three-run home run off the bat of Taylor Douglas to cut the lead to 13-12 before a Stout strike out sealed the win. It was Stout's 13th save of the season.
The win not only secured JSU's spot in the postseason, it also was Jim Case's 450th career win. Last season, he reached the 400 career wins mark at Eastern Illinois. He ranks third among OVC coaches in career wins.