MONDAY'S SCORES
@Murray State 7, Northern Illinois 6
@Tarleton State 8,
Eastern Illinois 3
MURRAY STATE 7, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 6
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State (7-0) baseball tied the best start in school history with the 1974 and 1975 seasons after their 7-6 win over Northern Illinois on Monday afternoon. The Racers came into Monday's matchup as one of just 18 undefeated teams left in the nation.
NIU jumped out to an early lead thanks to two unearned runs off graduate left-handed pitcher Adrien Reese. Reese finished the day going five innings with zero earned runs and two strikeouts. The MSU bats went to work in the third inning putting up four runs to take back the lead from the Huskies. Sophomore Parker Estes extended the Racers lead in the seventh inning on his first career home run, a deep solo blast to dead center field.
NIU would fight back, however, scratching together three runs in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at five. The Murray State bats showed their firepower once again in the bottom of the inning plating Cade Sammons and Jacob Pennington to give them a 7-5 lead. Alec Whaley earned the win in relief while making his MSU record 86th appearance on the mound. Whaley would allow one NIU run in the ninth but would slam the door with a strikeout to end the game.
TARLETON STATE 8, EASTERN ILLINOIS 3
STEPHENVILLE, Texas - Eastern Illinois (3-3) close out their three game series against Tarleton State (3-4) with a loss by a score of 8-3. Ryan Ignoffo continued his impressive three-game series against the Texans with his second four-hit game of the weekend. Starting pitcher Jesse Wainscott (L, 0-1) goes 0.2 IP giving up three earned runs on two hits including a homerun.
EIU started off Game 3 with two runs scored in the first inning off of three hits from starting pitcher Aiden Adams. Ignoffo, Doyle, and Worcester all collected singles in the first including a two-run single by Worcester. The Texans were able to answer in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own. Carter Dobrinski grounded into a double play, but not before Tarleton State scored a run. Wainscott then gave up a two-run homerun to Colby Seltzer to end his day.
Lang replaced Wainscott on the mound, and held the Texans in check throughout the second inning. After the Panthers stranded Ignoffo and Doyle on base in the third, the Texans were able to score two more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Kemuel Thomas-Rivera was able to hit the Texans' second two-run homerun of the game to make the score 5-2.
The Panthers were held to just one hit throughout the fourth, fifth, and sixth inning as Texans' starting pitcher Adams produced five fly outs throughout those innings.
Eastern scored their final run in the top of the seventh after Eickhoff was hit by a pitch, Nathan Aide singled, and Ignoffo singled to right field which scored Eickhoff from second. The Texans answered yet again off an error by the Panthers which scored two, and a Dobrinski double which brought home one more.
Eickhoff and Ignoffo both singled in the ninth to put two runners on, but the Texans manged to escape the game without any further damage.
EIU scored three runs on 11 hits, posted one error and left 11 men on base. Tarleton State scored eight runs on nine hits, had one error, and left four on base.