SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 8, SIUE 5
@Eastern Kentucky 3, UT Martin 0
Austin Peay 11, @Southeast Missouri 7
Jacksonville State 4, @Murray State 3
@Tennessee Tech 13, Eastern Illinois 9
@Morehead State 22, Massachusetts 0
BELMONT 8, SIUE 5
NASHVILLE - Belmont baseball extended its win streak to three games while carving its first series sweep of the season in dramatic fashion against SIUE Sunday afternoon at E.S. Rose Park. The Bruins stole a stifling nine bases en route to an 8-5 victory over the Cougars.
BU (13-13, 8-4) had to play catch up most of the game, having trailed SIUE (14-13, 4-8) three times – tying it up on each occasion. The Bruins were finally able to break away from the Cougars in the seventh with a three-run frame that proved to be the difference maker. Six different Bruins robbed at least one base with senior Tyler Walsh (Evansville, Ind.) (3) and sophomore Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) (2) to keep the Bruins within striking distance.
Stellar defense from both squads kicked off the finale as Belmont's starting hurler Connor Etheridge (Springfield, Ill.) dealt three strikeouts in the first three frames and saw impressive contributions from shortstop Kyle Conger (Brentwood, Tenn.) and second baseman Rafael Bournigal (Mulberry, Fla.) in the infield. Conger swiped a ball off the bounce to throw out a runner at first, while Bournigal had a web gem of his own after rising up and snagging a ball to rob the Cougars of a base hit.
SIUE had a pair of great catches of its own, both from centerfielder Eric Glitz to keep Belmont hitless through the first two frames. The Cougars then took the lead on a leadoff home run from Marty Brunk in the top of the third to put them put, 1-0.
Walsh made it five-straight games that he's registered a hit with a leadoff single through the left side. He then single handedly moved himself to third by stealing both second and third on back-to-back pitches from SIUE starter Danny Ehrsam. Once residing on third, junior Alex ward (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) converted a RBI single to right and tied the game up, 1-1.
A hit-by-pitch issued by Etheridge allowed the Cougars to reclaim the lead in the fourth on a two-bagger to left center. However, the Bruins continued to chase the Cougars and tied the game up, 2-2, for the second time in the home half of the stanza. Just as they'd done previously, the Bruins utilized their third stolen base of the day to bring in another run. Freshman-redshirt Matt Cogen (Franklin, Tenn.) connected on a base shot to center and then stole second. Bournigal then made another crucial play, this one at the plate, with a RBI single to tie the game.
The Cougars continued to separate themselves whenever the Bruins would find a way to tie it up. This time they created a little wiggle room with a three-run bomb by Keaton Wright that landed in the same place that their previous long ball did to give SIUE a 5-2 advantage.
Like clockwork, Belmont tied the game up with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth with the help of four more stolen bases. For the third consecutive frame the Bruins collected a leadoff single, this one from senior Clay Payne (Powell, Tenn.). A groundout to second put one away before the squad tallied three consecutive RBI hits from Hadden, Cogen and senior Nick Egli (Brentwood, Tenn.) to knot it up, 5-5.
BU took its first lead of the day in the home half of the seventh as Walsh continued to display his speed, stealing his third base of the day. Egli delivered a single to left field to kick off the inning before Walsh sent a RBI double to centerfield and tack on the first of three runs. The veteran then stole third for his third stolen base and Ward drove him in for the second time with a single. Sophomore Hunter Holland (Soddy, Daisy, Tenn.) then came in to pinch run and stole Belmont's ninth base. He then advanced home on a throwing error by the SIUE catcher to make it 8-5 and solidify the series sweep.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, UT MARTIN 0
RICHMOND, Ky. - The NCAA leader in home runs, Eastern Kentucky University’s Ben Fisher, hit his 15th of the season to help the Colonels complete a three-game sweep of the University of Tennessee at Martin with a 3-0 victory on Sunday at Earle Combs Stadium.
It was Eastern’s first shutout of an Ohio Valley Conference team since blanking Tennessee Tech, 4-0, on May 12, 2012.
Fisher was also the national leader in RBIs and runs coming into the weekend. He finished 1-for-3 with a walk, a run and an RBI on Sunday.
Eric Nerl started for Eastern (17-12, 4-5 OVC) and pitched three innings of shutout baseball. He allowed four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out four. Alex Hamilton (4-0) earned the win after tossing two innings of hitless relief.
Fisher staked the Colonels to a 1-0 lead with a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth. Cole Warrenfeltz doubled the lead with an RBI double to left center. Nick Howie continued to have a strong weekend, driving in a run in the fifth to make it 3-0.
Caleb Johnson pitched the final two and two-thirds innings to earn his sixth save of the season. He allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out four.
Alex Holderbach had two hits in four at bats for Eastern Kentucky. Ryland Kerr also had a pair of hits and scored a run.
Tyler Albright led the Skyhawks (9-15, 1-11 OVC) with a 2-for-4 day.
AUSTIN PEAY 11, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 7
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Prior to Sunday’s finale, third baseman Alex Robles gathered all of the Govs bats, carried them to the bullpen and threw them to the ground while yelling “Wake Up,” it did the trick as Austin Peay State University’s baseball team won an 11-7 Ohio Valley Conference contest against Southeast Missouri, Sunday afternoon at Capaha Field.
After Robles made his effort to wake the bats, center fielder Imani Willis set the tone for the day with his solo home run in the first inning. After Willis lit the fuse, the Govs offense kept plugging away, scoring in each of the first four innings.
Austin Peay (12-15, 5-7 OVC) would load the bases in both the second and third frames as the Southeast Missouri pitching staff had trouble locating the strike zone. A trio of two-out walks in the second loaded the bases and the Govs would drive in a pair of runs. In the third, a pair of walks helped load the bases and AustIn Peay would tack on another pair of runs with back-to-back sacrifice flies.
Southeast Missouri (14-11, 6-6 OVC) nearly matched Austin Peay through those first three innings. The Redhawks scored in both the first and second innings after Govs errors. In the third, left fielder Clayton Evans and first baseman Tristan Gagin each hit solo home runs, keeping SEMO within a run, 5-4 after three innings.
The Governors gained control of the contest in the fourth when they took advantage of a leadoff error that allowed Willis to reach base. Left fielder Cayce Bredlau followed with a single and the duo combined to complete a double steal. First baseman Dre Gleason then supplied a two-run single, and after designated hitter Garrett Giovannelli singled, right fielder Chase Hamilton drove in a run with a ground out, giving the Govs a 8-4 lead.
That outburst proved enough as Austin Peay starter Brett Newberg (1-0) settled in during the third to retire seven of 10 batters in a stretch that lasted into the fifth inning. The stretch saw him toss a scoreless fourth, backing up the Govs three-spot earlier. After allowing back-to-back singles in the fifth, he would make way for reliever Zach Neff who needed just two pitches to induce an inning-ending double play to end the threat.
Southeast Missouri kept a last gasp in reserve for the eighth inning when the Govs bullpen ran into trouble. Austin Peay surrendered five walks – two with the bases loaded – to help the Redhawks trim the deficit and put the go-ahead run aboard. However, reliever Levi Primasing got a much-needed strikeout to end the final threat.
Newberg (1-0) would claim the win after allowing four runs (two earned) on eight hits in his 4.1 innings of work. Neff would supply 1.2 innings of relief, allowing a run, before turning the game over to right-hander Ricky Heagarty. After Heagarty ran into trouble, Primasing took over and tossed 2.1 scoreless frames to notch his season’s first save.
Left fielder Cayce Bredlau and Robles each had three hits to lead Austin Peay’s 12-hit attack. Hamilton would supply a team-best three RBI and was one of seven Govs to end the day with a RBI.
Southeast Missouri starter Robert Beltran (1-3) surrendered four runs on two hits and four walks over two-plus innings and was saddled with the loss. The Redhawks used seven pitchers in the contest, the group combining to walk 10 Austin Peay batters in the contest.
Redhawks catcher Brian Lees led the offense with a 3-for-4, two RBI outing.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 4, MURRAY STATE 3
MURRAY, Ky. - For the third consecutive Sunday, senior Joe McGuire turned in stellar performance on the mound as he led Jacksonville State to a 4-3 series-clinching win over Murray State on Sunday at Reagan Field on the MSU campus.
With Sunday's win, the Gamecocks have won the last three weekend series, dating back to the weekend set versus Eastern Illinois. Last weekend, Jax State claimed a non-conference series at Southern Illinois in similar fashion as it did against the Racers. JSU won the opening contest, 7-5 and dropped the Saturday game, 6-4. JSU improved to 14-11 overall and 4-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. After being on the road for the last two weekends and no midweek activity, JSU begins a busy week on Tuesday at home against the Blazers of UAB, before making a trip to Birmingham on Wednesday at UAB. JSU will host OVC front-runner Tennessee Tech next weekend in an OVC weekend series.
McGuire, the reigning OVC Pitcher of the Week, turned in another weekly conference award effort on Sunday. The Oxford, Alabama right hander established a new career high in innings pitched after going seven innings last week. He reached in to the eighth inning against MSU and recorded the first out of the eighth before walking the next two batters. McGuire silenced the Racers' bats with three hits on the day and recording four strikeouts. After being touched for an unearned run in the first, and working around trouble in the third and fourth innings, he would retire 11 of the next 17 batters, including 11 consecutive Racers. His one-out walk allowed the first base runner since the MSU fourth inning.
JSU erased the one-run deficit in the third inning on junior Taylor Hawthorne's RBI single that scored Clayton Daniel. That frame would begin three consecutive run-scoring innings for the Gamecocks. JSU took the lead on freshman Payton Young's first career home run to start the fourth inning. JSU extended the lead in the fifth with an RBI single by Clayton Daniel, scoring Nic Gaddis, who reached with a lead off base hit.
The Gamecocks used the long ball for the final run as freshman Andrew Naismith delivered a one-out solo home run over the left field fence. Naismith led the offense with three hits, while Young added a pair of hits.
JSU's bullpen withstood an eighth-inning charge by the Racers as they would add two runs to cut the deficit to 4-3. JSU started with freshman Cody Dodd in relief, followed by redshirt freshman Tyler Wilburn and Michael McCreless. McCreless preserved the win with a strikeout to end the MSU threat with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. He retired the Racers in order to collect his first save of the season and second of his career. It was his first save since last season against Belmont.
On the weekend, the JSU pitching staff limited a Racers' line up that was one of the best in the league entering the weekend at .330. After three games, JSU's arms held MSU to a .167 average at the plate and surrendered 16 hits in three games and 14 total runs and just 10 earned runs.
TENNESSEE TECH 13, EASTERN ILLINOIS 9
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - More timely offense, clutch defense and crucial relief pitching helped lead the Tennessee Tech baseball team (23-7, 12-0) to a 13-9 victory over Ohio Valley Conference foe Eastern Illinois (5-22, 2-7) Sunday afternoon.
Extending the program's longest win streak to open league play in history, the Golden Eagles also tied the second best start ever to OVC play, matching last season's Southeast Missouri squad's 12-0 start. Tech now trails just the 2001 Eastern Illinois team, which started an unbelievable 17-0.
Sunday proved to be an up-and-down, roller-coaster of a contest, featuring three lead changes in the middle innings and plenty of offense to go around. Just like they did in both games one and two, the Panthers jumped on the scoreboard first, plating two in the top of the second inning on a long ball from Matt Albert.
Tech cut the lead in half in the bottom half, thanks to an RBI single up the middle off the bat of junior shortstop David Garza, but EIU plated two more runs in the top of the third to take a 4-1 lead, the team's largest lead of the series.
Once again, the Golden Eagles had an answer. Sophomore center fielder Alex Junior led off the frame with a hit-by-pitch on the first offering. Two pitches later, junior third baseman Trevor Putzig laced a double down the third base line, putting two in scoring position for sophomore right fielder Kevin Strohschein.
The reigning OVC Player and Rookie of the Year flicked a double to left center field on the first pitch he saw, driving in both runs to cut the deficit to one. After moving to third on a ground out, Strohschein dented home plate to tie the game on junior first baseman Chase Chambers' ground ball out up the middle to a shifted shortstop.
Both sides traded scoreless halves of the fourth, leading the Panthers to take back control of the game in the fifth with Albert's second home run of the game, a three-run shot to left field.
Wasting no time, the Golden Eagles struck back with Junior leading off the inning with an infield single to shortstop. The speedster took second base on a wild pitch and then third on a throwing error by the pitcher. Putzig took the easy RBI with a rocket single off the third baseman's glove, chipping the deficit back down to two.
Junior designated hitter Ryan Flick reached on a fielding error by the second baseman, bringing Chambers to the plate with a chance to play hero. A day after crushing two home runs, the junior came through again, torching the first pitch he saw over the scoreboard in left field to give the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game.
Refusing to go away quietly, Eastern Illinois had one more answer for the potent Tech offense, recapturing the lead with two more runs in the top of sixth.
The Panther looked like it might hold this time, as the Golden Eagles quickly recorded outs number one and two to start the inning. Then Junior showed just how valuable his speed could be. The sophomore struck out swinging, seemingly for the third out of the inning, but the pitch got away from the EIU catcher, allowing the speedy Junior to reach first safely and keep the inning alive.
The play couldn't have been more important, as Putzig, the next batter up, turned on a 2-2 pitch to blast his second bombzini of the year over the left field wall to jump Tech back into the lead, 10-9. This time, the lead would stick.
Sophomore reliever Nick Osborne worked a scoreless seventh frame, striking out the final batter of the frame with two runners in scoring position. He recorded the first out of the eighth as well, eventually giving way to fellow sophomore Ethan Roberts after allowing a base hit and reaching his pitch limit.
Roberts needed just two pitches to hand the bats back to the Golden Eagles, inducing a ground ball to Chambers at first, who touched the bag and hurled the ball to Garza at second base to snag the runner for an inning-ending double play.
Putzig provided an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to right center field in the bottom half of the eighth. Strohschein chipped in as well, smashing his sixth moon shot of the season to left center field for two RBI and a 13-9 lead.
After surrendering a leadoff double to Dougie Parks, Roberts dialed back in to force a high fly out to Garza in shallow center field for the first out. The Tech closer then punched out the final two batters of the game on swings, garnering his eighth save of the year to move into third place in program history for most saves in a single season.
Senior Kit Fowler took the victory on the day after completing the sixth inning for Tech, moving to 2-1 on the year. Offensively, Putzig, Strohschein and Chambers each recorded four RBI, with Putzig leading the way with three hits and three runs scored. Junior led Tech with four runs scored after finishing 2-for-3 and reaching base all five times he went to the plate.
MOREHEAD STATE 22, MASSACHUSETTS 0
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Led by a school single-game record-tying six hits from junior third baseman Eli Boggess, the Morehead State baseball team belted Massachusetts 22-0 at Allen Field Sunday and completed a three-game sweep of the Minutemen.
While the offense generated 28 hits, just one shy of the program single-game record, four pitchers combined for the first MSU shutout since March 30, 2016. Morehead State improved to 22-6 overall and 17-1 in the last 18 games while winning its 14th consecutive home contest. It continues to be the best start in program history. UMass headed back north with a 6-13 mark.
Boggess was 6-for-6, all singles, driving in two and scoring twice. Eight of the nine in the original batting order produced multi-hit games, including senior rightfielder Will Schneider who was 4-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI. He came within a triple of the cycle. Senior outfielder Michael Patrick drove in a team-best five runs, including a grand slam in an 11-run sixth-inning for the Eagles. Sophomore outfielder Niko Hulsizer belted his team-best 12th homer right after Patrick's bases-clearing bomb, and Schneider made it back-to-back-to-back jacks when he nailed a solo shot in that scoring outburst in the sixth frame.
On the mound, senior lefty Curtis Wilson improved to 4-2 by scattering five hits in six innings. Righties David Calderon, Alex Garbrick and John Hurayt contributed to the shutout by tossing a scoreless inning each.
Sophomore designated hitter Trevor Snyder completed an eight-hit week with three more hits today while tallying three RBI, while junior second baseman Braxton Morris notched his team and Ohio Valley Conference-best 16th multi-hit effort.
The Eagles also scored a six-spot in the fourth inning and three in the eighth as they batted around in the order in three separate innings.