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The 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship concluded on Saturday as Morehead State captured its third overall Tournament crown and first since 1993.
This season marked the 37th time the event has been held and the sixth year in a row it has been held at The Ballpark at Jackson (formerly Pringles Park) in Jackson, Tennessee. The venue is home of the Jackson Generals, the AA-affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
Game 9: #1 Southeast Missouri 9, #6 Belmont 4
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Game 10: #2 Morehead State 16, #1 Southeast Missouri 3
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#2 MOREHEAD STATE 16, #1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3
JACKSON, Tenn. - No. 2 seed Morehead State completed a perfect run through the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship with a 16-3 victory over No. 1 seed Southeast Missouri on Saturday at The Ballpark at Jackson to claim its third overall OVC Tournament Championship and first since 1993.
With the victory Morehead State (38-20) earns the OVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will be making just its third-ever appearance in the field; the team also qualified for the NCAA Championship in 1977 and 1983. The 64-team 2015 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship field will be announced at 11 a.m. CT on Monday, May 25 on ESPNU.
The nation’s top hitting team played like it on Saturday, banging out 17 hits and scoring 16 runs in the title game victory. The Eagles had entered the postseason ranking first nationally in batting average, scoring, total runs, hits, doubles and slugging.
Overall Morehead State has recorded the most overall (38) and Conference (20) victories in program history in 2015.
Morehead State struck early and often on Saturday plating five runs in the first inning and three additional runs in the second frame to go ahead 8-0.
Southeast Missouri would plate a pair of runs in the top of the fifth only to see the Eagles add one in the bottom of the frame and four in the sixth inning on a Kane Sweeney grand slam to put the game out of reach.
Sweeney and Brandon Rawe each finished the day with three hits, three runs scored and four RBI for MSU.
Brent Stoneking (5-1) was the winning pitcher in relief. He allowed just one hit over the final 4.1 innings.
The 13-run margin of victory was the largest in an OVC Champion Game since the 1994 season when Murray State topped Eastern Kentucky by 15 runs (19-4).
2015 OVC All-Tournament Team
Dylan Bosheers, Tennessee Tech
Paschal Petrongolo, Jacksonville State
Drew Ferguson, Belmont
Matthew Kinney, Belmont
Matt Beaty, Belmont
Branden Boggetto, Southeast Missouri
Travis Hayes, Southeast Missouri
Dalton Hewitt, Southeast Missouri
Alex Stephens, Morehead State
Craig Pearcy, Morehead State
Chris Robinson, Morehead State
Kane Sweeney, Morehead State
Clayton Meyer, Morehead State
MVP: Alex Stephens, Morehead State
#1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 9, #6 BELMONT 4
JACKSON, Tenn. - For the third-straight game No. 1 seed Southeast Missouri avoided elimination by topping No. 6 Belmont 9-4 on Saturday at the 2015 OVC Baseball Championship.
With the win Southeast Missouri (36-22) will advance to play No. 2 seed Morehead State on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Championship Round. The Redhawks will have to beat the Eagles twice (the second game schedule for Sunday at Noon) in order to claim its third OVC Tournament Championship.
Belmont’s season ends at 29-29.
For the fourth game in this tournament Southeast fell behind in the first inning as Belmont sent eight batters to the plate and scored a pair of runs on a Matt Beaty double and a Desi Ammons single. The Bruins added a run in the second on a Drew Ferguson single and went ahead 4-0 in the fourth on an Alec Diamond single.
But the Redhawk bats would finally come to life in the fourth inning when Southeast Missouri plated six runs with the big hit being a bases clearing triple by freshman Trevor Ezell.
Southeast added three more runs in the seventh inning to put the game away.
Southeast starter Jacob Lawrence could not make it through the first inning, but in relief Ryan Lenaburg (5-3) struck out six and limited Belmont to two runs on six hits over 8.1 innings.
Dom Veltri (2-4) took the loss for Belmont, allowing six earned runs in 3.1 innings.