FRIDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 4, @Belmont 3
@Southeast Missouri 14, UT Martin 1
Eastern Illinois 7, @Jacksonville State 5
@Tennessee Tech 13, SIUE 8
Chicago State 24,
@Eastern Kentucky 10
MOREHEAD STATE 4, BELMONT 3
NASHVILLE - Despite striking out 11 times at the plate Friday at Belmont, the Morehead State baseball team found just enough offense late in the game and got a strong pitching effort to defeat the Bruins 4-3 at Rose Park.
The Eagles, who won their seventh straight game, improved to a perfect 4-0 in the OVC for the first time since the 2005 season. It also marked the first win for the MSU program at Belmont since 2003.
Trailing 2-1 heading to the eighth, the Eagles used a leadoff single by senior centerfielder Ryan Kent and a double by sophomore shortstop Reid Leonard to kickstart the rally. A pair of ground outs (by senior outfielder Michael Patrick and sophomore outfielder Niko Hulsizer) pushed the tying and go-ahead runs across, and senior Will Schneider moved his reached-base streak to 22 straight games with an RBI single and an insurance run.
Junior lefty Aaron Leasher improved to 4-0 with the win, recording six strikeouts in eight full innings. Junior righty JC Hatcher got the first two outs in the ninth, and senior lefty Cable Wright nailed down the final out for his team-best fourth save. Junior third baseman Eli Boggess snagged a line drive on a dive to end the game with the potential tying run at third base.
Junior second baseman Braxton Morris got his team on the board with a solo homer, his third of the year, in the second inning. After that though, Belmont starter Tyler Vaughn cruised through the next five frames and struck out 11 Eagle hitters. Reliever Dom Veltri came on in the eighth following the two hits by Kent and Leonard and could not shut MSU down. Vaughn was charged with the loss.
The Eagles finished with six hits, led by Boggess with two, including a double.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 14, UT MARTIN 1
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri baseball (8-7, 1-3) defeated UT Martin (7-8, 0-4) at Capaha Field Friday evening, 14-1, for its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.
The Redhawks scattered 10 hits in the 14-run affair. Dan Holst, Tristen Gagan, and Danny Wright all recorded two hits for Southeast in the game. Gagan powered the offense with four RBI while Holst drove in three. Wright hit his first career home run and scored a season-high three runs.
Clay Chandler improved to 3-2 on the mound with a six-inning outing Friday. Chandler allowed UTM's lone run on six hits. He fanned five and walked one.
Relievers Blaze Hastings and Joey Burris combined for the final three innings, allowing just one hit.
For the second game in a row and only the fifth time this season, Southeast scored first. It was only the third time in 2017 in which Southeast scored in the opening stanza.
Clayton Evans was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the first then moved into scoring position with his second stolen base of the season. Holst drove Evans in on a liner shot into left center, putting SEMO up 1-0 in the first.
The Redhawks put up a six spot in the second inning to open a 7-0 lead on the Skyhawks. The frame began when Chris Caffrey blasted a home run, his first as a Redhawk, to right field. Three walks issued to the Redhawks loaded the bases with one out. Holst drew the bases-loaded walk to push in a run, 3-0. Gagan doubled the Redhawk lead with a three-run triple to center, clearing the bases. Kylar Robertson followed with a triple of his own to score Gagan and put SEMO up by seven.
The third inning began with Wright hitting a home run to left, the first of his collegiate career. Chris Osborne was hit by a pitch then scored all the way from first on a double ripped down the right field line by Holst, adding to the lead, 9-0.
With Wright on second, his third time on base in the game, Connor Basler lined a ball off the pitcher Sam Folks whose throw to first was wild, allowing Wright to score and putting Basler on third. Basler immediately scored on a wild pitch to make it an 11-0 game.
UT Martin got on the board in the top of the sixth inning with its lone run. Anthony Adduci reached on a two-out single then scored on a double off the bat of Daniel Kerwin to erase the shutout, 11-1.
Southeast tacked on a couple more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on RBI hits by Osborne and Gagan to widen the lead to 13-1.
SEMO concluded the scoring when Kyle Bottger scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Michael Berra in the eighth inning. It was the first career RBI for Berra, a redshirt-freshman.
Seven different Skyhawks combined for their seven total hits in the game.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 7, JACKSONVILLE STATE 5
OXFORD, Ala. - After exchanging leads in their series-opening game on Friday night, the Eastern Illinois baseball team regained the lead for the final time following a three-run eighth inning and earned a 7-5 Ohio Valley Conference win over Jacksonville State.
Eastern Illinois improved to 2-14 (1-0 OVC) following the win, while Jacksonville State dropped to 8-9 (0-4 OVC).
Two-out hitting proved to be the difference in the game as the Panthers batted .429 (6-for-14) with two outs, while Jacksonville State finished .125 (1-for-8). The Panthers finished with 13 total hits in the game against Jacksonville State’s seven.
The Panthers started out swinging to begin the game as Joseph Duncan gave Eastern Illinois some early momentum with a lead-off triple in the top of the first. Dougie Parks followed with a one-out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch to put a pair of runners in scoring position for Matt Albert. Albert roped a double into left to score both Duncan and Parks and gave EIU a 2-0 lead.
Trent Simpson cut the Jacksonville State deficit in half with a solo home run in the second inning and gave the Gamecocks a 3-2 lead in the third inning on a two-run single.
Jacksonville State added a run to their total in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hayden White earned a lead-off walk and quickly came around to score on an Andrew Naismith RBI triple as the Gamecocks extended their lead to 4-2.
After a quite fifth inning from both teams, the Eastern Illinois’ offense rallied back to tie the game in the sixth. Frankie Perrone got the rally started with a lead-off solo home run over the wall in left. Logan Beaman followed the Perrone home run with a single and moved up to third after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout. With two away in the inning, Nicholas McCormick came up with a clutch RBI single to plate Beaman and tied the score at four.
Beaman and McCormick connected again in the top of the eighth inning. Beaman led off the inning with a double to give the Panthers a runner in scoring position. Jacksonville State looked as if they would escape the threat getting the next two Panthers out, but McCormick came through for Eastern Illinois with a two-out RBI single. The McCormick single provided a spark for the Eastern Illinois offense as Duncan and Andrew Curran both followed with an RBI single and put the Panthers ahead 7-4.
Jacksonville State used a pair of walks and an Eastern Illinois’ error in the bottom of the eighth to cut the Panthers’ lead to 7-5. That would be as close as the Gamecocks would get however as Brent Stephens pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season. Stephens threw 1.2 shutout innings.
Alex Stevenson marked the first man out of the bullpen for the Panthers and held the JSU offense in check as he allowed just one run on two hits in 4.2 innings of relief. Stevenson finished his appearance with five strikeouts and earned his second win of the season.
Duncan (3-for-5) and McCormick (3-for-4) led the EIU offense with three hits each. Curran and Beaman added a pair of hits to the EIU total.
TENNESSEE TECH 13, SIUE 8
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The bats were out in full force for the Tennessee Tech baseball team Friday afternoon, propelling the Golden Eagles (13-6, 4-0) to a 13-8 victory over Ohio Valley Conference rival SIUE (10-7, 2-2) at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex.
The Tech squad smacked a whopping 10 extra base hits in the contest, including five home runs and five doubles. It marked the second time this season the Golden Eagles hit five of each in a game, roughing up the Bradley pitching staff back on Feb. 24 for six home runs and five doubles.
Led by the bat of senior Matt Jones, the Tech offense scored early and often, eventually blowing the game wide open with seven runs in the fifth inning. Jones finished the contest 2-for-4 with two home runs, two runs scored and a team-high four RBI.
Junior Ryan Flick fell just a triple shy of the cycle for the third time this season, blasting a home run and raking his league-leading 11th double of the season as part of a 3-for-5 showing at the plate. He finished with three RBI and two runs scored.
Senior Chris Brown crushed a solo shot in the game while gathering two hits in four trips to the dish while Collin Harris put a cartoon swing on a ball for his team-best seventh dinger of the season. Harris, as well as junior Trevor Putzig, posted two RBI.
Leadoff man Alex Junior got the offensive explosion started on the day, ripping the fourth pitch of the bottom of the first for one of his two doubles on the day. Flick eventually drove the speedster in with an RBI single for a 1-0 Tech lead.
SIUE, which smacked three home runs of its own, took the only lead it would see in the second with a two-run tater down the right field line. Brown quickly answered to the tie the game with his solo bomb to kick off the bottom half of the second. Two batters later, Jones unleashed his own one-run turkey call to left field to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good.
Twelve Tech batters saw the plate in the fifth inning, turning a modest 6-4 advantage into a commanding 13-4 lead thanks to a two-run tattoo from Flick, three-run jack job from Jones, sac fly from Putzig and RBI double from sophomore Kevin Strohschein.
The Cougars showed fight in the final two frames, gathering three runs in the eighth and a single marker in the ninth before the Tech bullpen put a stop to any further damage.
TTU starter Michael Wood saw mixed results on the day, tossing seven and one third innings of mostly dominant ball. He struck out seven and walked just two while also allowing just five hits. Three of the knocks proved to clear the fence, however, equating to seven earned runs. Wood gathered his team-high fourth victory of the year.
In the ninth, SIUE showed signs of a comeback, putting the first two runners on with back-to-back walks. After Brandon Smith relieved Ty King, the senior right-hander allowed a single that loaded the bases before gathering the home team's first out on a pop up. After a second single allowed a run to cross, head coach Matt Bragga turned to closer Ethan Roberts to shut down the threatening offense of the visitors.
The sophomore came through in dominant fashion, flashing back-to-back strikeouts on just seven pitches for his fourth save of the season.
CHICAGO STATE 24, EASTERN KENTUCKY 10
RICHMOND, Ky. - Ben Fisher hit a monster three-run home run in the first inning and a grand slam in the seventh, but the Eastern Kentucky University baseball team lost, 24-10, to visiting Chicago State University in the opener of a three-game series on Friday at Earle Combs Stadium.
Fisher’s three-run dinger in the bottom of the first inning staked Eastern Kentucky (10-9) to an early lead. Chicago State battled back and eventually tied the game at 3-3 on Julian Russell’s sacrifice fly in the top of the third.
Fisher’s bomb over the wall in center field was his team-leading fifth of the season.
The Cougars (4-10) scored 10 runs in the seventh inning to open up a 12-run lead, 16-4. Cody Freund had a three-run home run and Rick Salazar hit a two-run shot for CSU in the big inning.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, Fisher sent the ball sailing over the wall in left field. Shea Sullivan followed with a solo shot to close the gap to seven, 16-9, but that is as close as Eastern would get.
Fisher finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and seven driven in.
All the Chicago State starters had at least one hit, one run and one RBI. Zach Thomas finished 4-for-6 with two runs and an RBI. Russell had a 3-for-4 day with four runs and five RBIs.