SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Murray State 7, SIUE 6
Southeast Missouri 11, @Belmont 4
@Toledo 7,
Austin Peay 6
MURRAY STATE 7, SIUE 6
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State (24-19) baseball won in dramatic fashion with a walk-off single from Jordan Holly to win 7-6 on Sunday afternoon at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky. The win secured the Racers third straight OVC series win and moves them into fifth place in the league standings.
The Racers offense was highlighted by Bryson Bloomer's 3-for-3 day at the plate with a pair of doubles, three RBIs, and two walks. The redshirt senior leads all MSU hitters with 51 RBIs on the year. First baseman Brennan McCullough collected a pair of hits on the day with an RBI and a run scored in the contest. Jake Slunder and Drew Vogel each got a hit in the game while Slunder also had an RBI and a run scored. Following a Riley Hawthorne walk and a Seth Gardner sacrifice bunt, Jordan Holly lofted the walk-off single just over the Cougars shortstop to plate Hawthorne for the winner.
Murray State starting pitcher Adrien Reese impressed in the outing going 6.0 innings pitched and allowing just two earned runs while walking just one. Malik Pogue tossed 1.2 innings in relief while not allowing an earned run in the outing. Alec Whaley earned his third win of the season in his appearance.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 11, BELMONT 4
NASHVILLE - Southeast Missouri (30-12, 13-5) reclaimed the top spot in the Ohio Valley Conference standings with an 11-4 series-clinching win over Belmont (28-16, 10-5) Sunday afternoon at E.S. Rose Park.
SEMO entered the weekend as the league's second-place team before taking two of three to pass BEL for the top position in the standings. The series win marked the Redhawks 10th overall and fourth in conference play this season.
Today's win also gave SEMO 30 victories for the second-straight season and 15th in program history. The 30-win campaign is also the Redhawks fifth in eight years.
Tied, 4-4, after six innings, the Redhawks scored four runs in the seventh and three more in the ninth to blow the game open.
Brett Graber walked in a run with the bases loaded and Ben Palmer scored when Andrew Keck hit into a double play. With two outs, Ty Stauss doubled to right center bringing home both Tyler Wilber and Jevon Mason as SEMO pulled ahead, 8-4, in the top of the seventh.
Two innings later, Graber homered and Keck and Wilber scored the game's final tallies on a sacrifice bunt by Peyton Leeper.
SEMO (11) and BEL (14) combined for 25 hits in the contest.
Keck went 3-for-4 with three runs, a double and two RBI to lead the Redhawks. Leeper (3), Stauss (2), Graber (2) and Mason (1) accounted for the rest of SEMO's runs batted in. Additionally, Palmer went 2-for-4 with two runs and a double.
Blake Cisneros (3-0) picked up his third win of the season in relief. Cisneros worked 2.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts and two hits allowed.
Dominic Baratta (3-1) suffered his first loss out of the Bruins' bullpen. Baratta gave up three runs on one hit and walked one. He did not get an out in his appearance.
TOLEDO 7, AUSTIN PEAY 6
TOLEDO, Ohio - Third baseman Ty DeLancey hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning to get Austin Peay State University’s baseball team within a run but they would get no closer and fell 7-6 to Toledo, Sunday, at Scott Park.
Trailing 7-2 after six innings, Austin Peay (16-29) began the seventh with left fielder Jeremy Wagner’s single and shortstop John Bolton reached base after being hit by a pitch. After second baseman Gino Avros singled to load the bases Wagner scored. Two batters later, DeLancey drove a pitch over the wall just left of straightaway center field, narrowing the deficit to 7-6.
Toledo (25-17) responded to the home run by retiring the final eight Governors batters of the game. Reliever Connor Brandon struck out two batters in the ninth to pick up his first save.
The Govenors scored the game’s first run on center fielder TJ Foreman’s solo home run in the first. But the lead wouldn’t survive the inning as shortstop Jeron Williams singled to start the bottom of the frame and scored on right fielder John Servello’s one-out single, tying the game 1-1.
The Rockets took advantage of Austin Peay miscues to score twice in the third and three times in the fifth to build a 7-2 lead. Williams scored in the third on a two-base throwing error and Sorvello tacked on another run with a two-out solo home run. In the fifth, Servello added a two-run single after an error earlier in the inning.
Austin Peay starter Drew McIllwain (3-6) allowed four runs on five hits to take the loos. However, he did not walk a batter and struck out five. Peyton Jula followed McIllwain on the mound and allowed three runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings. Jacob Weaver capped the Govs pitching performance with two scoreless innings.
Toledo starter Camryn Szynski (2-2) picked up the win after five innings of work that saw him allow two runs on six hits.
Avros, Foreman, and DeLancey each had two hits to lead the Govs nine-hit outing.
Williams and Servello each had three hits to pace the Rockets eight-hit day.