Baseball falters in extra innings at SEMO, 5-4

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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Branden Boggetto's one-out walk-off homer in the 10th inning sunk the Morehead State baseball team, 5-4, Saturday at Capaha Field. The Eagles held an early 2-1 lead but left 12 runners on base and dropped their third straight game.

MSU is now 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while the Redhawks moved to 12-8 overall and 5-0 in the the conference.

"We seem to have a pattern offensively of getting one or two great at-bats and then two or three bad ones in a row," said Head Coach Mike McGuire. "We pitched it well again today, and that gave us every chance to win. When it came down to winning time though, we didn't get quality at-bats, and SEMO was ready to win when it came down to it."

Morehead State had runners on first and second with one out in the top of the 10th, but SEMO reliever Andy Pennington (1-0) coaxed two straight strikeouts to end the threat. Boggetto drilled the second pitch in the bottom of the inning over the fence in left field off MSU's Patrick McGuff (1-3).

The Eagles grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning via freshman Reid Leonard's two-out, two-run single following junior rightfielder Will Schneider's double.

SEMO scored a solo tally in the first and then took its first lead with a pair in the fifth. With the bases loaded and no one out, Daniel Costello ripped a ball to first base that MSU's Jesus Carrera appeared to catch. The ball fell though, and Carrera tagged first base for the out. His throw home, however, was muffed, allowing the tying run to score. Second baseman Trevor Ezell's infield single made it a 3-2 SEMO advantage.

MSU fought back with a run in the seventh as freshman designated hitter Jake Hammon scored from first base on a throwing error. The back-and-forth mind game continued in the bottom of the seventh when SEMO's Hunter Leeper delivered a two-out RBI double. The Eagles set the stage for extra innings in the eighth as Leonard, who led MSU with three RBI, connected on a sacrifice fly to score Schneider, who had led off with a triple to center field.

Senior righty Matt Anderson got a no-decision after tossing 6.1 innings and recording seven strikeouts. McGuff only allowed two hits and fanned four in the final three frames.

Schneider was 2-for-4 to lead the MSU offense. Boggetto had two of the Redhawks' six hits.

The series finale is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.