SATURDAY'S SCORES
@SIUE 4, Belmont 2
Tennessee Tech 10, @Eastern Illinois 6
Jacksonville State 13, Murray State 4 (Birmingham, Ala.)
Southeast Missouri 20, @Austin Peay 4
Eastern Kentucky 7, @UT Martin 6
@Kansas 12,
Morehead State 0
SIUE 4, BELMONT 2
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE junior pitcher Kenny Serwa fired eight shutout innings Saturday to lead SIUE baseball to a 4-2 win over Belmont Saturday. The win secured SIUE's first Ohio Valley Conference series win of the year.
The Cougars are now 7-18 overall and 3-9 in OVC play. Belmont dropped to 12-15 overall and 7-5 in the OVC.
The series victory is the first for SIUE over Belmont.
Serwa struck out a career-best nine hitters, walked one and allowed just six hits. The Bruins had only three runners in scoring positon in eight innings against Serwa.
SIUE took the lead in the fifth with three consecutive two-out base runners against Belmont starter Casey Queener.
Jared McCunn walked and then Brock Weimer singled. Aaron Goecks lined a double to the wall in right center to score both and give SIUE a 2-0 advantage.
Queener allowed two runs over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked four. He fell to 2-3 with the loss.
The Cougars padded the lead in the eighth inning, again scoring twice with two outs. Steven Pattan singled and moved to third on a Mario Tursi hit, before coming into score on a wild pitch. Tursi scored on a two-out infield hit by Jordan Ross.
Ross finished 3 for 5 with the RBI. Pattan was 2 for 4 with the run scored.
Belmont made things interesting, scoring twice in the top of the ninth inning. SIUE reliever Collin Baumgartner walked the only two hitters he faced, and both scored. Chris Robinson allowed a hit and struck out two en route to his first save of the year.
TENNESSEE TECH 10, EASTERN ILLINOIS 6
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The winning streak counter is officially set at 11 for the Tennessee Tech baseball team after the Golden Eagles (20-5, 10-1) defeated Eastern Illinois (9-16, 1-7) Saturday afternoon at Coaches Stadium, 10-6.
The 11-game streak marks the longest by a Tech squad since the 2013 team tied the program record with 14 straight victories. It also represents the longest active streak in the nation, tied with Michigan and also won on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles received a very strong performance on the mound from junior Marcus Evey, who moved to 3-0 on the season after six innings on the hill. The right-hander held the Panthers to just a single hit and no runs while striking out two.
Veteran reliever Colton Provey earned his second save of the season after completing the final two and one third innings. He allowed just two hits and one earned run.
The Tech offense was first on the scoreboard for the second straight day, plating four runs in the top of the third thanks to a two-run double from center fielder Alex Junior and a two-run triple off the bat of senior Chase Chambers.
An RBI single by junior Nick Osborne and RBI triple from Collin Harris in the sixth extended the lead to 6-0, but the home town Panthers were not about to go down quietly. In the bottom of the seventh, Eastern Illinois struck for five runs, and threatened to take the lead until Provey forced a fly out to left field to end the frame.
Seniors David Garza and Brennon Kaleiwahea immediately responded for the Golden Eagle offense. Garza drew a leadoff walk in the eighth to set up Kaleiwahea for an RBI single up the middle two batters later.
For good measure, the Tech bats kept the attack going in the ninth, using a two-run double down the left field line from junior John Ham and an RBI single through the left side from Garza to provide the damage. EIU put one more run across the board before Provey finished the job to clinch Tech's 11th straight win.
Junior finished 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI out of the leadoff spot while Chambers drove in a pair while slugging a double and a triple. Ham also posted two RBI and two runs scored while walking twice.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 13, MURRAY STATE 4
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Jacksonville State completed its first Ohio Valley Conference weekend sweep of the season on Saturday by scoring 13 unanswered runs in a 13-4 win over Murray State at Young Memorial Field on the UAB campus.
The Gamecocks, who claimed both games on Friday, 5-3 and 21-3, improved to 15-9 overall and 6-3 in league play. The Racers dropped to 14-14 on the season and 5-7 in the conference. The conference sweep is the first since JSU finished the 2017 regular season with three wins over SIU Edwardsville and the second sweep of the 2018 campaign after opening the slate with a sweep of Southern Illinois. Jax State enjoyed the confines of UAB's Young Memorial Field with 39 total runs on 39 total hits. The 39 runs for the weekend matches the most complied by the Gamecocks in a weekend set since a sweep of Austin Peay during the 2016 season.
JSU, who started strong in both games on Friday, struggled against Murray State's Luke Brown for the first four innings. Brown tossed four innings without giving up a hit to JSU until sophomore Andrew Naismith kick-started a Jax State rally in the fifth. The Auburn, Alabama native started the frame with a single, followed by Issac Alexander's double down the third base line. Freshmen Cole Frederick and Alex Strachan had an RBI sacrifice fly and an RBI ground out to plate the first two of four runs in inning. Senior Clayton Daniel tallied his seventh career triple, scoring Tanner Anderson from first base. JSU equalized with a wild pitch, scoring Daniel.
The Racers took advantage of some ineffectiveness from senior Colton Pate in their half of the fifth as two of Pate's five walks scored on an RBI double by Davis Sims and a two more runs on Ramsey Scott's single. That would be all the Racers would get the rest of the way as freshman Christian Edwards moved in line for the win after getting out of the fifth and pitching the next two innings. Edwards was touched for the one hit in the fourth and collected four strikeouts. The Hartselle, Alabama right hander picked up his first win as a Gamecock. JSU used Tyler Wilburn and Austin Brewster in the final two innings.
Naismith started a one-out rally in the sixth with a double and after back-to-back walks by Alexander and Frederick, senior Hayden White tallied the eventual game-winning RBI with a pinch hit walk. With two outs, Daniel put the ball in play and JSU took advantage of a Racer miscue, clearing the bases to expand the lead to 8-4 in the sixth.
JSU continued to pound Racer pitching in the seventh with a five-run at bat on four hits. It was Naismith who highlighted the inning with a two-run scoring double. Nolan Greckel also added an RBI single in the inning.
For the weekend, Naismith finished 7-for-13 with three doubles and a home run and drove in five runs.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 20, AUSTIN PEAY 4
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Danny Wright hit a grand slam, Peyton Faulkner delivered a three-run home run and Southeast Missouri (11-17, 8-4) pounded out a season-high 24 hits in a 20-4 rout of Austin Peay (16-12, 7-5) Saturday.
SEMO scored four or more runs in three of the game's first five innings and slugged four home runs en route to matching its largest win of the season.
The Redhawks wasted no time against APSU starter Devan O'Donovan, who didn't record an out.
Chase Urhahn led off the game with a single to left field and was quickly at third following back-to-back wild pitches. Faulkner followed with an infield single and Urhahn scored. Immediately after another wild pitch, Trevor Ezell tripled to right center and Faulkner scored. That was the end for Donovan who exited the game after facing only three hitters.
Justin Dirden and Wright reached on consecutive one-out singles and Wade Stauss walked to load the bases. Dirden's hit brought home Ezell. Connor Basler then doubled and both Wright and Dirden scored to give the Redhawks a 5-0 lead. SEMO sent 10 hitters to the plate in the top of the first inning.
A two-out single by Dirden pushed across another run for SEMO in the second inning.
The Redhawks continued to rip apart APSU pitching in the fourth and fifth frames.
With the bases loaded and one out, Wright blasted a grand slam to left center to key a five-run fourth inning. The home run was Wright's first of the season.
Faulkner drove a three-run home run down the right field line and Wright added a run-scoring single to widen SEMO's lead to 15-1 in the fifth.
Still not finished, the Redhawks scored twice more in the sixth and ninth innings and once in the seventh to bury the Governors.
A total of 10 different SEMO players had a hit. Of that group, seven tallied two or more. Urhahn went 4-for-5 with four runs scored, Ezell went 3-for-4 with three runs, Falukner rexcorded four RBI, Wright went 3-for-6 with two runs and five RBI, Basler finished at 4-for-6 with two runs and three RBI and Dirden was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two RBI.
Carlos Vega (4-3) picked up the win allowing only one run in six innings. Vega also notched a career-high 10 strikeouts and walked just one.
Donovan (1-1) suffered the loss, his first of the season.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 7, UT MARTIN 6
MARTIN, Tenn. - The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team completed a three-game sweep of the University of Tennessee at Martin with a 7-6 victory on Saturday at Skyhawk Field.
The Colonels (12-16, 5-4 OVC) have won two straight conference series, going 5-1 in their last six Ohio Valley Conference games.
Eastern added much needed runs in the seventh and the eighth innings. Nick Howie hit a solo home run in the eighth, his second home run in as many games and fifth of the season. It proved to be the game winning run.
After UTM scored one run in the eighth to close the gap to just one run, and with the tying run on first and two outs in the inning, Aaron Ochsenbein came on and struck out Jordan Stoner to end the threat. Ochsenbein allowed one hit in the ninth before getting a double play to end the game and pick up his fifth save.
Howie finished 2-for-3 with a run and three RBIs. He had eight RBIs combined in the final two games of the series. Cornell Nixon and Ryland Kerr scored two runs each.
RBI singles by Alex Holderbach and Howie in the top of the third inning tied the score 2-2. However, the Skyhawks grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the inning on a two-run home run by Ethan Whitley.
The Colonels came right back and took the lead again with three runs in the top of the fourth. With the bases loaded, Tyler Romanik drove in one run with a single to left. Howie and Jake Lewis then drew walks to push in two more runs and make it a 5-4 game in favor of the visitors.
KANSAS 12, MOREHEAD STATE 0
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Seniors Braxton Morris and Tyler Niemann and junior Reid Leonard both extended lengthy hitting or reached-base streaks, but it came on the short end of a 12-0 setback to close the series at Kansas Saturday.
MSU slipped to 16-13 overall. Kansas is now 17-11 as it took the first and third games of the series.
"I think we did show that we can play with teams like Kansas this weekend," said hed coach Mike McGuire. "Today, I felt like we had a chance to take an early lead and we didn't and Dalton (Stambaugh) didn't pitch as well as the first two starters did. Had we not left runners in scoring position in those early innings, it might have been different."
Morris, the Eagle second baseman, had a first-inning single to extend his reached-base streak to 30 games and his hitting streak to 24 games. Leonard had a hit and a pair of walks and now owns a 21-game reached-base streak. Niemann reached on a fielder's choice to up his reached-base streak to 17 contests.
The hosts scored twice in the second, fifth, sixth and eighth innings and busted the game open with a four-spot in the fourth. They had three players with three hits on the day.
Morehead State finished with just four hits.
Stambaugh (4-3) allowed eight runs, seven earned, and struck out five in 4.2 innings. Ryan Zeferjahn went the first eight frames to improve to 5-1.