FRIDAY'S SCORES
Belmont 15, @Morehead State 5
@Murray State 4, UT Martin 2
Southeast Missouri 9, @Tennessee Tech 4
Eastern Illinois 11, @Austin Peay 9 (11)
BELMONT 15, MOREHEAD STATE 5
MOREHEAD, Ky. - With five home runs from five different Bruins, the Belmont University baseball team coasted to a 15-5 blowout win over Morehead State on Friday night at Allen Field in Morehead, Ky., evening up the series with the Eagles at one game apiece.
The win marked the first time the Bruins hit five home runs in a game since they blasted five homers in a win over Memphis on May 25, 2016.
Belmont (22-13, 8-3 OVC) will look to secure their fourth straight Ohio Valley Conference series win on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET back at Allen Field.
Prior to Friday, Belmont had not hit more than three home runs in a game this season. In the win, Tommy Crider, Brodey Heaton, Carson Shacklett, Jack Capobianco, and John Behrends all went deep, helping Belmont to a season-high 15 runs on 13 hits, the most runs for Belmont since they scored 17 against Morehead State at Allen Field on March 7, 2020.
Andy Bean (W, 6-1) picked up his conference-leading sixth win of the season with a strong showing that saw him pitch into the seventh inning, going 6 2/3 frames with seven strikeouts, tying his season-high.
The reigning OVC Co-Pitcher of the Week used his curveball to devastating effect, getting out of tricky situations with well-placed strikes that put Morehead State's hitters off-balance.
Dominic Baratta was lights out from the bullpen, recording the final seven outs while giving up just two hits and no runs with two strikeouts to help Belmont snap a three-game losing streak.
Six Bruins finished with multiple hits, including Capobianco, the junior second baseman from London, Ky., who hit his first career home run in his 136th game as a Bruin, in front of family in the stands in his home state.
Crider hit a two-run shot in the third inning to give Belmont a 5-2 lead, his second home run of the series and his team-leading seventh long ball of the year.
Heaton delivered a towering three-run homer in the fourth inning to hand the Bruins a 10-4 lead, and the Eagles were unable to threaten the rest of the night, as Bean locked in with three scoreless frames in a row before being taken out in the seventh.
Shacklett added a solo home run to right field in the fifth inning, and Capobianco and Behrends both hit their solo home runs to right field in the seventh inning.
MURRAY STATE 4, UT MARTIN 2
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State (17-16) baseball picked up their second consecutive victory over UT Martin 4-2 on Friday evening at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky. The win gives the Racers their first OVC series win this season and moves the team to 15-6 at home on the year.
Starting pitcher Hayden Wynja was impressive on the hill for Murray State, tossing five scoreless innings while allowing just two Skyhawks hits and striking out six. The southpaw picked up his third win of the season to bring his record to 3-3. Jordyn Naranjo picked up his second save of the year with 0.2 scoreless to close the door. Racers starting pitchers have combined for 12.0 innings pitched with zero earned runs through the first two games of the series against UT Martin.
Jacob Pennington shined at the plate for MSU with a double and a solo blast to lead the offense. The redshirt sophomore now has four round-trippers on the year while batting .337 across 83 at-bats. Jake Slunder picked up two more hits in the game, including a double to right-center field to bring his season batting average to .328. The graduate outfielder also picked up two stolen bases in the contest for his 12th and 13th swipes in 2022. Murray State baserunners have grabbed 73 stolen bases this season which would rank tied for sixth nationally entering today.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 9, TENNESSEE TECH 4
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Andrew Keck went 3-for-5 with two runs, two home runs and five RBI to lead Southeast Missouri (24-9, 8-3) to a 9-4 win over Tennessee Tech (19-13, 3-5) Friday night at Bush Stadium. The Redhawks, who homered five times, evened the series to 1-1.
Jevon Mason led off the game with a solo home run down the left field line. After Peyton Leeper reached on an error and Tyler Wilber walked, Keck smacked his first home run over the right center wall to give the Redhawks a 4-0 lead.
TTU answered with four runs of its own to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the second.
Three innings later, Wilber delivered a two-out single and Keck launched his second home run of the game to left center putting SEMO ahead, 6-4.
SEMO put the exclamation point on its 24th win when Joel Vaske and Wilber both homered in the top of the ninth. Vaske hit a solo shot to center and Wilber slugged a two-run bomb to left center.
Austin Williams (4-1) claimed the win in relief. Williams worked five two-hit shutout innings. He established a new career-high with nine strikeouts and allowed only one walk, as well.
The Redhawks registered 10 hits with both Keck and Wilber getting three to lead the way. Wilber also scored three runs and extended his hitting streak to eight games.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 11, AUSTIN PEAY 9 (11)
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Eastern Illinois (24-8, 7-1 OVC) takes the series at Austin Peay (13-22, 6-5 OVC) after a 13-hour delay from the start of game two on Friday night with a 11-9 win in the 11th inning. The Panthers earn their seventh Ohio Valley Conference win of the season and have won seven of their last eight games. Logan Eickhoff delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 11th to score Ja'Lil Akbar from second. Jackson Nicholas earned his first save of the season after throwing only five pitches in the bottom half of the inning.
Although a high scoring game, both starting pitchers for the Panthers and Governors got off to hot starts in the first four inning of the game. EIU only produced two hits in the first four innings off of starting pitcher Harley Gollert. Cameron Doherty also shut down the Governors offense while only allowing one hit and a walk.
The offenses started to heat up after the fourth as Grant Lashure hit his second homerun of the season in the top of the fifth off of Gollert to put EIU on the board. The Panthers would load the bases twice in the same inning, but failed to convert any more runs. Doherty allowed two hits and no runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Dalton Doyle added one of three hits for him in the game in the sixth with a single followed by Bryce Hayman to have two on in the sixth. Grant Lashure delivered another RBI through the left side to score Doyle from second. Lincoln Riley would give EIU a 3-0 lead after he singled down the third baseline to score Hayman.
The Governors would answer the call in the sixth with three runs of their own. After Doherty gave up two singles to leadoff the inning, Kyle Lang would enter the game on the mound. John McDonald would drive in an RBI single off of Lang to give APSU their first run. Reid Brown would follow that with an RBI single of his own. John Bolton would hit a sacrifice fly to center to score the third run off Lang.
EIU would go scoreless in the top of the seventh. The Governors would take their first lead of game two off an RBI single from McDonald after Jesse Wainscott replaced Lang. Wainscott would get a strikeout to end the inning.
The Panthers bats would have their best inning in the eighth after scoring six runs. Doyle and Lashure both picked up singles to start the inning, and was followed by an RBI single by Akbar to bring home Doyle. After an intentional walk by Riley, Luca DiLuca would earn himself a free pass the first with an RBI walk. Eickhoff would deliver an RBI sac fly to center to score Akbar. Nathan Aide then singled to first which brought home Riley on the throw home. Nicholas Rucker picked up his first hit to score the final two RBIs of the inning to put EIU up five heading in to the eighth.
The Governors would chip away at that lead with four runs of their own. Wainscott would give up a two RBI single to Ty DeLancey and then put runners on second and third before Jason DeCicco entered the game. McDonald would pick up his third and fourth RBI off a single through the left side to cut the lead to one. Zane Robbins would get the final out of the game off a strikeout.
EIU had an opportunity in the top of the ninth with bases loaded to get an insurance run, but were left stranded by two straight strikeouts to end the inning. Robbins would go back out in the ninth, and put runners on the corners for the Governors. Gino Avros would hit a SAC fly to center to score one and give Robbins his first blown save of the season. He would get out of the ninth with a strikeout.
After a scoreless 10th inning, the game was delayed until 1:00 p.m. today due to lightning in Clarksville. In the 11th, EIU would score two in the top of the inning. APSU had a chance to turn two to end the inning with a double play, but Jonah Beamon had a throwing error at second to put two Panthers on. Eickhoff would deliver than go-ahead RBI single and was followed by Aide with an RBI sac fly to put EIU up two. Nichols would enter the game and earn his first save after only throwing five pitches.