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Evansville, Ind. – A two out, two run double by sophomore
Taylor Davis gave Morehead State a 9-8 lead in the bottom of the eighth and
Josh Schneider pitched around two errors in the top of the ninth, holding off Purdue as MSU grabbed a 9-8 victory over the Boilermakers Saturday afternoon in Evansville, Ind.
The Eagles (7-10) were forced to battle back after squandering a 7-1 lead as Purdue scored seven unanswered runs over three innings, and eventually grabbed an 8-7 lead in the top of the eighth. The MSU bats responded in the bottom half of the eighth. #J.D. Ashbrook
walked and Drew Lee# singled to put two on with two outs. Both runners then moved up on a wild pitch before Davis ripped a shot to the gap in right center that snuck past a diving Barrett Arthur to plate the game-tying and game-winning runs.
Purdue (2-7) was able to put runners on first and second in the top of the ninth due to errors on Lee and
Casey Branham. Schneider was unfazed, however, as the right hander calmly pitched around the errors getting Drew Madia to fly out to left, and striking out Arthur and Barrett Serrato to pick up his third win of the season.
It was Schneider’s second good outing in a row as the Oxford, Penn. native finished the day strong after giving up the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth. Schneider gave up just two hits in two innings with three strikeouts on the day.
The Eagles got a single run in each of the first three innings to jump out to an early 3-1 lead. Ashbrook walked and scored on a Davis single in the first.
Michael Fear singled and then scored on an Ashbrook infield single in the second, and
Daniel Pugh led off the third with a solo home run to left field, his first round tripper of the season.
MSU then used a four run fifth to take a six-run lead. Ashbrook led off the inning with a single and then was driven in by Lee’s seventh home run of the season, a deep, towering fly ball that easily cleared the fence in right field. Davis popped out to second for the second out of the inning and Purdue appeared to be out of the inning when
Michael Bottoms tapped a grounder to third, but a throwing error by Boilermaker third baseman Ryan Bridges kept the inning alive. Flynn followed the error with a single to right and Michael Fear walked to load the bases.
Andrew Deeds then grounded a single through the left side of the infield to score both Bottoms and Flynn.
MSU starter Bottoms pitched well in the early innings, giving up just one run on four hits in the first five innings. Bottoms went six innings and gave up five runs on the day.
Purdue battled back into the game with a pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh and then took the lead with the three-run eighth.
Lee led the Eagles with a 4-5 day at the plate while Deeds batted 3-4 with two RBIs. Ashbrook and Davis also had multi-hit efforts in the contest, while Davis tallied three two-out RBIs.
MSU returns to the field tomorrow for the final game of the University of Evansville Dunn Hospitality Diamond Challenge; a 12:00 p.m. first pitch against the Dolphins of LeMoyne.
Game Notes: Drew Lee extended his hitting streak to 14 games. Michael Fear extended his own hitting streak to six games.
