TUESDAY'S SCORES
Murray State 5, @Southern Illinois 2 (13)
@Missouri 9,
Southeast Missouri 3
Memphis 11,
UT Martin 10 (12) (Millington, Tenn.)
MURRAY STATE 5, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 2 (13)
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Murray State (25-19) baseball defeated Southern Illinois 5-2 in 12 innings on Tuesday night at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois. The win for MSU in Carbondale is just the seventh time this season SIU has been defeated at home and is just their 13th loss overall.
In what was a pitcher's duel for most of the evening, Ryan Fender impressed once again as the starting pitcher for MSU. Fender went 4.2 innings pitched while allowing just three hits and one earned run in the performance. Alex Jarrell was the first relief arm of the night for Murray State, tossing two scoreless innings in the appearance. Alec Whaley earned the win after one of the more impressive relief outings of the year with 3.2 innings pitched. Whaley struck out four batters while allowing just one hit in the outing while lowering his ERA this season to 3.32. The Racers pitching staff limited one of the top offenses in the Missouri Valley Conference to just five hits in 40 at-bats in the game.
After missing significant time with injury this season, redshirt freshman outfielder Dustin Mercer made his Murray State debut tonight with two hits and a run scored. Jacob Pennington added two hits as well, including a two-RBI single in the 12th inning to plate two critical insurance runs for the Racers. Freshman Carson Garner hit his fourth home run of the season with a solo blast in the sixth inning of the contest. Jake Slunder drew the bases-loaded walk in the 12th inning to score the go-ahead run for MSU.
Murray State has now won seven of their last eight games and have now picked up five wins over future Missouri Valley foes this season.
MISSOURI 9, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3
COLUMBIA, Mo. - - Andrew Keck extended his hitting streak to 11 games as Southeast Missouri (32-13) fell to Southeastern Conference member Missouri (25-17), 9-3, Tuesday night at Taylor Stadium.
Keck went 2-for-4 with a home run and one run scored to pace SEMO which had four hits.
Down, 3-0, SEMO got back in the game with a big swing from Tyler Wilber in the top of the fourth inning.
With Peyton Leeper on base after a leadoff walk, Wilber stepped in with one out and hit a line drive home run over the right center wall to make it a one-run game. For Wilber, it was his team-high 15th home run of the season.
Mizzou answered with a solo home run of its own in the bottom of the fourth when Trevor Austin cleared the wall in right field to give the Tigers a 4-2 cushion.
Another home run, this time by Keck, pulled SEMO within a run again in the top of the sixth. Keck launched his 14th round-tripper over the center field fence.
The Tigers, however, responded with a two-out RBI-single by leadoff hitter Luke Mann to grab a 5-3 advantage in the bottom of the sixth.
Cleanup hitter Fox Leum accounted for Mizzou's final four runs on a pair of home runs, including a solo round-tripper in the seventh and a three-run shot in the eighth.
Collin Wilma (0-1) returned from a stress fracture to make his first appearance and start of the season. Wilma allowed two runs on one hit, struck out one and walked one in 1.1 innings. It was the first time Wilma pitched in a little over a year (since May 1, 2021).
Christian Wall gave Mizzou four quality innings where he struck out six and gave up two runs on one hit. Jacob Kush (3-0) would end up with the win in relief and Austin Cheeley picked up the save.
Wilber and Ty Stauss accounted for SEMO's other hits.
Meanwhile, Mizzou collected 10 hits for the night.
MEMPHIS 11, UT MARTIN 10 (12)
MILLINGTON, Tenn. - In the fifth neutral-site meeting between the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team and in-state foe Memphis on Tuesday night, the Skyhawks found themselves locked in their second extra-inning war of attrition within the past six days after some late-game heroics and another flavorful offensive performance. Despite a 17-hit accumulation that featured a trio of long-balls and a 9th-inning rally, UTM was ultimately bested by the Tigers after 12 grueling frames by the score of 11-10.
The non-conference slugfest – held inside Millington’s USA Stadium – turned into the longest outing of the 2022 campaign for UT Martin (10-29, 3-15 OVC), who found three separate innings of scoring two or more times, including the aforementioned comeback in the waning moments of regulation. Facing a 10-7 hole with their backs against the wall, the navy and orange were reenergized from both the bottom and top of the batting order to send the contest into bonus baseball for the second time in the past four games.
Infielder Nate Self opened the rally in the outing’s climax on the team’s third double of the evening, setting up nine-hole hitter Alec Beaman for the RBI-single. Only seconds later, sophomore Will Smith boomed his third homer of the year down the rightfield line for perhaps the most momentous swing of the preseason All-OVC performer’s college career.
Smith’s game-tying lob wasn’t the first time on Tuesday that the Skyhawks drilled one past the outfield barrier. In fact, both Wil LaFollette and Casey Harford provided their own HR’s in the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively, the latter of which was the second of what would become four consecutive hits from the UTM senior shortstop. Harford and LaFollette – responsible for 16 of the team’s 35 home runs since February – added up for seven hits and five RBI against the Tigers, including a triple from the second-year rightfielder later in the contest.
Erupting for eight extra-base swings to calculate 17 connections in all (the second-highest hit count of 2022 for the orange and blue), the Skyhawks found significant contributions from nearly everyone who stepped to the plate, including a combined nine hits from Smith, Self, Beaman, and freshman DH Blaze Bell, who dropped in an RBI-double in the top of the 8th.
Harford’s four scores batted in bring the senior’s RBI collection to 35 on the year and 146 over the past five seasons. Meanwhile, Smith’s three runs scored matches a season-high for a single match that was also secured away from home against Central Arkansas back on March 13th.
A grand total of 15 pitchers were utilized from both sides to account for the lengthy nature of the midweek battle, where freshman J. Henry Hobson was given the starting role. Alongside relievers Seth Petry, Trey Ricko, Blake Davis, Tucker Reed, Baylor Jones, Noah Walters, and Warren Lee, the Skyhawks canned 12 batters on 257 tosses, helping the UTM offense outperform Memphis in the hits department by a 17-10 difference.
While the Tigers ultimately grabbed the close win, the Skyhawks’ batting prowess continues to grow stronger in the latter stages of the semester, placing 327 hits as a unit overall while bringing their home run assortment to 35 in 39 games.