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JACKSON, Tenn. -- Junior right-hander Craig Pearcy fired the first nine-inning complete game of his collegiate career on Friday evening, and Morehead State posted an 8-4 victory over Belmont in the winner's bracket finale of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at The Ballpark at Jackson.
The second-seeded Eagles, who have won 26 of their last 33 contests, improve to 37-20 overall and 5-2 at neutral sites. The sixth-seeded Bruins slip to 29-28 overall and 2-3 at neutral sites. MSU dropped all three contests at BU in late March, but did not lose a conference series in April or May.
Morehead State advances to the league tournament's championship round for the first time since 1996. The Eagles will play the winner of top-seeded Southeast Missouri and Belmont on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The championship round's "if necessary" contest is slated for Sunday at 1 p.m.
"Tonight was another very good ball game," Head Coach Mike McGuire said. "We are happy with the win, but have one more to go. We didn't come here just to play in a championship game. Our young men have worked so hard this year, and I want to see them win a trophy for Morehead State."
Pearcy, who was making his eighth start of the season after 11 relief appearances, improved to 4-4 with the win. He allowed three earned runs, three walks and four hits while striking out seven in a 125-pitch performance. The hurler retired 13 straight batters from the first through fifth innings.
Belmont's first four hitters reached base in the opening frame, but Pearcy rebounded to notch 1-2-3 innings in the second, third, fourth and eighth. The Bruins tallied just four base knocks in the contest, including only two after the first inning. BU's last six hitters in the order went a combined 2-for-22.
"Craig pitched very well," McGuire said. "He had a rough first inning, but only gave up two hits after. It's been big that we've been able to play through the winner's bracket. It's also been huge that we've had quality starts the past two days, which means we have multiple relief pitchers still available."
Morehead State registered 15 hits on the night, including five for extra bases. Senior first baseman Kane Sweeney, senior catcher Chris Robinson and sophomore third baseman Alex Stephens collected three base knocks and two runs apiece. Stephens also drove in three runs for the Eagles.
Stephens crushed a go-ahead homer in the sixth. He now has four roundtrippers and 29 RBI in 29 games this season. Morehead State added four insurance markers in the seventh. The Eagles put together five singles, to go along with a walk, fielder's choice and sacrifice bunt, in their big inning.
Senior left-hander Dan Ludwig fell to 4-6 with the loss. He allowed seven runs, all earned, 12 hits and one base on balls while punching out five batters in 6.2 innings. The hurler defeated Morehead State with a complete-game shutout on March 20 in the series opener at Rose Park in Nashville.
"We are excited about the opportunity to play in the championship round," McGuire added. "We will see what happens in Saturday's first game, but we will be facing a quality opponent regardless. At this point in the season, it's more about how we play and our execution in all phases of the game."
Morehead State's 37 overall wins and 20 conference victories are both school records. The Eagles continue to build on their best overall winning percentage (.649) since going 28-11 (.718) in 1976. MSU has also landed its best tournament seed since being second in the 1994 OVC Tournament.
Michael Gustin and Matt Segal will call Saturday's championship game on OVCDigitalNetwork.com. The four-camera webcast is free and requires no registration. Additional updates will be available via MSUEagles.com, OVCSports.com, Twitter.com/MSUEagles and Facebook.com/MSUEagles.
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