SATURDAY'S SCORES
Lindenwood 4, @Western Illinois 1
Southeast Missouri 5-21, @Morehead State 1-7
UT Martin 4, @Tennessee Tech 2
SIUE 5, @Little Rock 3
Eastern Illinois 12, @Southern Indiana 3
LINDENWOOD 4, WESTERN ILLINOIS 1
MACOMB, Ill. - The Lindenwood baseball team (22-21, 9-7 OVC) secured the series win over Western Illinois (12-26, 5-12 OVC) with a 4-1 win on Saturday afternoon.
Lindenwood got the scoring started in the top of the first when Sam Grunberg nearly left the yard, but drove in a pair. The Lions brought one more home later in the inning on a Charlie Isom-McCall fielders choice, giving the Black and Gold a 3-0 lead after one.
Ethan Smith kept the Leathernecks hitters off balance. After allowing a pair of hits in the first, he did not allow one until the seventh, but he pitched out of jam with his seventh strikeout of the day.
Lindenwood tacked on a run in the eighth with a two-out rally that began with a Tyler Thompsom double. Jake Radosevich drove him home with a single to center and Thompson just beat the throw, growing the lead to 4-0.
The Leathernecks got on the board in the bottom of the eighth, plating one, cutting the deficit to 4-1. Smith finished his day, tossing 7.2 innings, giving up that one run and striking out a season-high eight. Bennett Stice finished off the win going 1.1 innings out of the pen to earn the save.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 5-21, MOREHEAD STATE 1-7
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Southeast Missouri Baseball (25-18, 12-5 OVC) swept Saturday's doubleheader with Morehead State (12-29, 2-15 OVC) with a 5-1 and 21-7 victory in game one and two, respectively, from Sonny Allen Field.
Designated hitter Gunnar Doyle tied the all-time program record in Saturday's second game with nine RBIs most recently achieved by teammate Cole Warehime a season ago. Doyle finished 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, two home runs, and nine RBIs to pace the Redhawks.
RHP Sam Heyman (5-4) used great run support from the Redhawks' offense to pick up his fifth win of the season. He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing just two earned runs on eight hits and struck out two eagles.
Four Redhawks finished with multi-RBI days led by Doyle, but Cole Warehime, Andrew Ramirez, and Brooks Kettering all finished with two or more RBIs. Warehime finished the second game with his fourth home run in four games, and four RBIs.
The Redhawks scored three in the second, five in the third, five in the fith, six in the sixth, and a run in the eighth and ninth inning(s) to throttle Morehead State in the second game of the double header.
RHP Nathan Mertens (6-1) was dominant once again in the first game of the day en route to picking up his sixth win of the season. Mertens pitched 5.2 innings without allowing a run and punched out one Eagle. He allowed just five hits on the afternoon over 23 hitters.
LHP Jackson Kranawetter pitched the final 3.1 innings of the contest as he picked up his OVC-leading seventh save of the season. Kranawetter struck out six Eagles over the final innings and allowed just one run.
A bases loaded walk to Caleb Corbin scored the games' first run to put SEMO up 1-0 in the second inning before a double play allowed another SEMO run to come across. The Redhawks led 2-0 after the second inning.
A Cole Warehime two-run home run in the eighth inning made it 4-0 SEMO as Bryce Cannon scored on the blast. The Eagles would score a run in the bottom of the inning, but an RBI single from Michael Mugan in the 9th inning was a quality insurance run to make it 5-1 SEMO.
Kranawetter shut the door as the Redhawks picked up their 11th OVC victory of the season.
UT MARTIN 4, TENNESSEE TECH 2
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team rode a dominant start from junior lefty Zach Wager to even the weekend series up with a 4-2 triumph over Tennessee Tech at Bush Stadium.
Brody Capps (double, two RBIs) and JT Popick (run scored) had two-hit games. Frank Micallef (RBI), Garner Anderson (base hit, RBI, stolen base, walk), Jalen Fithain (base hit, run scored), Blaze Bell (walk), Jonah Katsaboulas (base hit), Cameron Greene (walk) and Jordan Hudson (base hit, run scored) also helped the Skyhawks offensive attack.
Wager (5-5) threw a career-high eight innings allowing just one earned run while striking out four. Kaleb Baskin nabbed the save pitching a flawless ninth for his third save of the season.
Wager worked through the first two innings without a hit and recorded two early punchouts. Tennessee Tech (27-17, 10-7 Ohio Valley Conference) plated a run in the home half of the third, but the southpaw Wager responded with two 1-2-3 frames in the fourth and fifth.
The Golden Eagles stranded two in the sixth after Wager induced a flyout, strikeout and lineout to third. In the seventh, UT Martin (16-25, 7-9 OVC) drove in the tying run on a Micallef sacrifice fly to plate Popick and then the third straight single from the Skyhawk offense gave them the lead when Anderson scored Hudson. Capps sent a ball to right center that brought Anderson and Fithian home to make it a 4-1 ballgame heading into the home half.
Tennessee Tech cut its deficit down to two but an inning ending double play helped Wager get to the eighth. The left-hander notched a new career-best in innings pitched with another double play and a groundout to shortstop to conclude the frame.
Baskin entered in the ninth and finished off the game on three straight flyouts.
SIUE 5, LITTLE ROCK 3
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Chase Bloomer's first career grand slam in the top of the eighth inning was the difference as the Cougars claimed a 5-3 win in the second game of a key Ohio Valley Conference series at Little Rock.
SIUE maintained a share of first place in the OVC, improving to 12-5. The Cougars are 19-21 overall. Little Rock fell to 18-24 overall and 7-9 in OVC play.
The Trojans led 3-0 and Little Rock starter Jack Cline cruised through 7 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits, then SIUE flipped the script.
Lane Crowden opened the eighth inning with a double to left center. Daniel Gierer singled with one out and Mack Mitchell walked. Chase Bloomer then blasted the go ahead shot down the left field line.
Gage Haley relieved Cline, but the first batter he faced, Ryan Niedzwiedz homered to put the Cougars up two at 5-3.
Duncan McLaughlin (1-0) earned the win after working the final 2/3 of the seventh inning.
Alex Rodriguez worked a scoreless eighth inning but walked the first two hitters he faced in the bottom of the ninth. Kyle Athmer then retired the next three hitters to earn his first save of the year.
Spencer Stearns started and allowed three runs over 6 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out four.
Cline (6-3) took the loss for the Trojans. He allowed four runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out four.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 12, SOUTHERN INDIANA 3
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Eastern Illinois baseball team (22-18, 10-6 OVC) bounced back with a 12-3 win over Southern Indiana (20-23, 9-8 OVC) in Evansville on Friday. The Panthers evened the series behind another strong outing on the mound from Tyler Kapraun to go along with some opportunistic offense.
Mike O'Conor led the Eastern offense with two hits, including a home run, and three RBIs. Zak Goodwin and Ethan Rossi also posted two hits apiece, with Goodwin scoring a team-high four runs and Rossi adding a pair of RBIs. Meanwhile, Joey Hagen drove in three runs of his own to match O'Conor.
Three EIU pitchers saw action in the game, combining for 15 strikeouts and stranding a total of 13 USI batters on base. Tyler Kapraun picked up his fourth win of the season after going five and two third innings to start the game. He scattered 11 hits while allowing just two runs with a season-high 10 strikeouts.
Kapraun was tested right out of the gate, as USI's first three batters singled to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first. However, the lefty from Peoria was unfazed and struck out the next three Screaming Eagles to pull off an impressive escape act.
The EIU offense rewarded Kapraun's efforts with an Ethan Rossi RBI base hit in the top of the second that scored Zak Goodwin, who had initially reached base on a one-out double.
Eastern tacked on another run in the third inning, as Chris Worcester singled and advanced to third after an error and Brett Stanley fly out before taking the final 90 feet on a Mike O'Conor RBI groundout.
Southern Indiana found the scoring column in the bottom of the third with a Cameron Boyd RBI single, but EIU immediately responded with two runs in the top of the fourth.
The inning started with James Love reaching on an error and Zak Goodwin being hit by a pitch, with both runners tagging on an Ethan Rossi fly out to reach scoring position. Love would then score on a Pierce Bauerle RBI groundout before a Quade Peters two-out single drove in Goodwin to put Eastern ahead 4-1.
Kapraun worked through the fourth and fifth innings without surrendering a run before finding himself in another difficult spot in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on second and third and none away, Kapraun recorded the first out of the inning with his season-high 10th strikeout of the game before trading a run for an out on a ground ball.
Eli Cartwright then entered the game and sat down the first batter he faced on strikes for the third out, as the Panthers escaped another jam with minimal damage.
In the top of the seventh, Mike O'Conor extended the lead back to three for EIU with a two-out solo shot to right center, which was his team-leading ninth home run of the season.
After a scoreless bottom of the seventh from Cartwright, controversy ensued in the top of the eighth as Ethan Rossi was called out on interference after a collision at first base. Following a replay review that upheld the call, EIU skipper Jason Anderson was ejected from the game after arguing the decision while James Love and Zak Goodwin, who had reached on walks to begin the inning, were required to return to their previous positions on first and second.
However, the call proved to be mostly inconsequential, as pinch hitter Joey Hagen stepped to the plate with two outs and crushed a ball to right center that carried into tree line for a three-run homer that extended the lead to 8-2.
The Screaming Eagles got one back in the bottom of the frame with a Clayton Slack RBI base hit, but Dalton Boruff was called into action out of the bullpen and struck out three of the next four batters to prevent any more runs from coming across.
Eastern would proceed to put the game further out of reach with a four-run top of the ninth. After a Brett Stanley lead-off triple, Mike O'Conor poked a ball through the right side to tack on the frame's first run.
Following a fly out, a Jake Ferguson groundout followed by a Zak Goodwin base hit moved O'Conor to third before a wild pitch allowed him to score another run. Ethan Rossi followed that up with an RBI single, and after a Tyler Castro walk, Jake Ottensmeier kept the two-out rally going with an RBI base hit of his own.
After the damage was done, Dalton Boruff came back out and retired the USI side in order to finish off the win.