SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 3, Eastern Kentucky 2
@Jacksonville State 13, Austin Peay 0
@#8 Ole Miss 7,
Eastern Illinois 3
BELMONT 3, EASTERN KENTUCKY 2
NASHVILLE - Belmont Baseball completed a series sweep Sunday afternoon with a 3-2 victory over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels to open up Ohio Valley Conference play.
Belmont improved to 3-0 in the conference while EKU dropped to 0-3.
Belmont's defense, led by junior Casey Queener (Brentwood, Tenn.) on the mound, got off to a hot start, retiring the Colonels in order to set the tone of the ballgame. Queener pitched seven innings, striking out six and only walking two.
Junior Devon Gardner (Maryville, Tenn.) registered the Bruins' first hit of the night in the bottom of the first with a base hit to left field. With some heads-up base running, Gardner stole second to put himself in scoring position. Junior Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) stepped up to the plate and recorded another single to right field that drove Gardner in to give Belmont an early 1-0 lead. Senior Ben Kocher (Zionsville, Ind.) got to second base on another hit, but he and Hadden were stranded to end the inning.
EKU responded early in the second. Their first batter sent a single through the middle of the Belmont defense to give the Colonels' their first base runner of the night. After a sacrifice bunt and a ground out, Eastern Kentucky earned the run back and knotted things at 1-1.
The Bruins kept their composure going into the bottom of the second. Senior Kyle Conger (Brentwood, Tenn.) put together a nice at-bat and reached first base on a walk to kick-off the inning. After two quick outs, senior Cully Day (Mahomet, Ill.) recorded his first hit of the night, driving Conger home to regain the lead 2-1.
After a few scoreless innings, Belmont scored their final run in the bottom of the sixth. Kocher was able to take advantage of a base on balls and a couple wild pitches to score the Bruins' third run of the night to increase the Belmont lead 3-1.
EKU made things interesting in the top of the fourth with a solo shot over the left field fence to tighten things back up. BU responded well with two quick outs to get out of the inning.
Freshman Kyle Brennan (Franklin, Tenn.) took over on the hill to start the eighth inning, trying to preserve the Belmont lead. After allowing a leadoff single, the Bruins' defense made three defensive plays that kept the Colonels' from scoring.
Freshman Logan Bowen (Bowling Green, Ky.) entered the game to try to put things away in the top of the ninth. He retired Eastern Kentucky in order, including a game ending strikeout, to record his second save in as many days and secure the series sweep.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 13, AUSTIN PEAY 0
OXFORD, Ala. - Jacksonville State tied a season-high with 13 runs and exploded for a season-best 18 hits to claim the final game of the weekend series with Austin Peay, 13-0, on Sunday at Choccolocco Park.
The Gamecocks notched their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season after dropping the first two games of the opening weekend of league action to the Governors. JSU improved to 10-5 overall, while APSU fell to 10-5 as well. The blanking of APSU is JSU's third shutout of the season after holding Southern Illinois and Radford scoreless in the final game of those respective series. Jax State will be idle until next weekend as it treks to Charleston, Illinois for the first OVC road series against Eastern Illinois. The series will get started at 3 p.m. at Coaches Stadium on Friday.
Every spot in the Gamecocks' lineup recorded a hit, led by freshman Isaac Alexander's four hits on the day. Senior Clayton Daniel and sophomore Andrew Naismith added three hits each, while senior Trent Simpson added two hits to the hit parade. Daniel, who reached base in five of his six plate appearances, jump-started the order with a pair of doubles. Simpson closed out the weekend with his third home run in as many days with a three-run blast over the left field wall to cap off the JSU scoring in the eighth.
JSU scored in six of the eight plate appearances, including the final six frames. After manufacturing the first run of the game in the third inning, the Gamecocks put up a four spot in the fourth inning, highlighted by three doubles in the inning. Daniel collected his second double of the day with one down in the inning, followed by Taylor Hawthorne's two-bagger just inside the first base line for a pair of two RBI. Simpson posted his first of five RBI on the day with a single. Naismith turned in the third double of the inning for an RBI to end the scoring.
With Hawthorne reaching base with his double, the Prattville, Alabama native has reached base safely in 38 consecutive games dating back to the final 23 games of the 2017 season. He matched Kansas State's Will Brennan, who has also reached safely in 38 consecutive games going back to last season. Georgia Tech's Wade Bailey had a streak of 44 consecutive games reaching base streak halted this weekend.
The four-run cushion was all senior Colton Pate needed in his fourth outing of the season. Pate scattered four APSU hits in six innings of work and tallied eight strikeouts. In his first four appearances, the Lincoln, Alabama righty has been stellar on the bump. He has pitched 23.1 innings and has allowed just three runs to go along with 27 strikeouts. After Sunday's start, he has an earned run average of 1.16 and opposing batters are hitting .115 against him.
Junior transfer Austin Brewster pitched an inning before Simpson got some work in the final two innings. The trio of Jax State pitchers allowed one Gov to reached third base in the game and turned in 10 strikeouts as a staff. The pitchers were aided by solid defense by them, including a pair of double plays to end APSU threats of putting runs on the board.
JSU took advantage of ineffectiveness by the APSU bullpen as Daniel and Simpson walked for a RBI in the fifth. APSU pitchers walked nine Gamecocks on the day. Senior Hayden White had an RBI single in the sixth, followed by Alexander's RBI double in the seventh. Freshman Cole Frederick recorded his first RBI as a Gamecock in the seventh. Even though JSU pounded out 18 hits, it left 16 men on base throughout the game.
#8 OLE MISS 7, EASTERN ILLINOIS 3
OXFORD, Miss. - Despite hitting three solo home runs, the Eastern Illinois baseball team fell in the series finale at Ole Miss 7-3.
With the loss Eastern Illinois dropped to 5-8, while Ole Miss improved to 15-1 on the season.
Eastern Illinois got on the board first, for the first time in the series in the top of the second when Dougie Parks hit his second home run of the season.
Ole Miss answered back in the bottom of the second. Will Golson got the rally started for the Rebels hitting a one-out double to right center. Tyler Keenan would advance Golson to third on a sacrifice fly to center. Ole Miss would earn tie the game on a Cooper Johnson single through the right side. The one-out rally continued with two straight singles by Chase Crockwell and Jacob Adams to load the bases. Grae Kessinger was able to bring one run in on a single to short. Ryan Olnek followed up extending the rebel lead to 4-0 with a two run single up the middle.
Jimmy Govern hit the Panthers second leadoff home run of the game to cut the Rebel lead to 4-2 in the top of the fourth inning.
Ole Miss' Crockewell answered back in the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer of his own to push the Ole Miss lead to 5-2.
EIU would battle back in the top of the fifth with Tyler Tesmond hitting the Panthers third solo home run of the afternoon to left center.
The Rebels were able to keep the offensive pressure on as they would score in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to secure the victory 7-3.
Carson Haws suffered the loss on the mound for the Panthers, going 4.1 innings surrendering six runs.
Parks finished the afternoon 2-for-4 with a run, RBI, and home run. Govern and Tesmond both finished 1-for-4 with a run, RBI, and home run. Andrew Curran finished the afternoon going 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.
The Panthers will travel to Itta Benna on Tuesday to take on Mississippi Valley in a two game series (Mar. 13 & 14).