GAME NOTES (PDF) | LIVE STATS (GM 1 | GM 2 | GM 3) | LIVE AUDIO (GM 1 | GM 2 | GM 3)
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- The Morehead State baseball team returns to Allen Field for the final time in 2016 when the Eagles host Jacksonville State for a three-game league set. The opener is set for Friday at 5 p.m. ET, with Saturday's game at 5:30 p.m. following MSU commencement exercises and Sunday's finale slated for 1 p.m.
All three games can be heard live on MSUEagles.com. On Sunday, MSU will honor seven members of the program on Senior Day.
The Eagles (27-22/13-11 OVC) are currently in fifth place in the conference with the top six teams earning a spot in the postseason tournament in Jackson, Tenn. Currently there are four teams, MSU, Tennessee Tech, Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, battling for two spots. The Eagles are a half-game ahead of EKU and TTU and sit only a half game behind Belmont for the fourth seed. MSU holds tiebreakers over TTU and Belmont and faces Murray State next weekend for the regular season finale series.
MSU has been tough to beat at home in the past two seasons, and in particular, OVC teams haven't had a lot of success against the Eagles at Allen Field. MSU has won eight consecutive conference series at home and 11 of the last 12. Overall, the Eagles are 15-4 at home in 2016.
Jacksonville State enters the series with a 29-19 overall mark and a 17-7 league scorecard. The Gamecocks started 14-2 in the league but lost home series to Southeast Missouri and EKU. JSU has dropped eight of its last 13 games overall.
MSU will start senior righthander
Matt Anderson (7-2) in game one. He needs just one strikeout to set the MSU single-season record. Sophomore lefty
Aaron Leasher will start game two with the third-game starter yet to be announced. The Eagles will face righties Graham Officer and Joe McGuire in the opening two contests before lefty Derrick Adams goes for the visitors in the finale.
GAME NOTES HEADING INTO THE SERIES
• Jacksonville State leads the series 29-12, but MSU has won six of the last eight games, including a three-game sweep at JSU last season.
• Two pitchers are chasing MSU records and could be attained this weekend. Senior pitcher
Matt Anderson needs just one strikeout to eclipse Sean Hogan's single-season K record of 108 set in 1991. Junior pitcher
Cable Wright has 83 career appearances and needs only two more to break the mark of 84 set by Troy Young (1995-98).
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Matt Anderson is on the watch list for National Pitcher of the Year, and freshman shortstop
Reid Leonard is on the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award (nation's best shortstop), presented by the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Anderson is also in the top 10 of several other career charts at MSU. He ranks second in games started (41) and strikeouts (299), third in innings pitched (265.1) and eighth in appearances (66). He ranks fifth among all active Division I players in strikeouts.
• Anderson and sophomore lefthander
Aaron Leasher are the first duo in program history to record more than 100 strikeouts each in the same season. Anderson ranks second nationally in Ks while Leasher is fifth.
• Junior centerfielder
Ryan Kent is in the top 10 of two career categories at MSU, ranking fifth in hit-by-pitch (24) and seventh in walks (96). He also ranks 11th in runs scored (143) and doubles (42).
• Junior centerfielder
Will Schneider carries a team-best 13-game hitting streak into the series. During his streak, he has 24 hits and has batted .436 in that span.
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Schneider has a team-best 23 multi-hit games and 14 multi-RBI games.
• Morehead State ranks third in the nation in hits (562) and doubles (116) after leading the country in those categories, plus three more, in 2015. In the last two years, the Eagles have legged out 288 doubles, which leads all Division I teams.
• The Eagle pitching staff has set a school-record for strikeouts for the third straight season. MSU had 427 in 2014, 443 in 2015 and has 461 this season.
• The three four-year seniors -
Anderson, Craig Pearcy and
Tyler Keele - have been a part of 110 wins in their careers. The mark for most wins in a four-year span in 118 by a select number of players from 1993-96.
• Morehead State is searching for its first back-to-back 30-win seasons in program history. The 94 victories in the last three seasons are the most in a three-year period. The 1993-95 Eagle teams put together 89 wins in that span.
• Head Coach
Mike McGuire was named 2015 OVC Coach of the Year, leading the Eagles to school records for total wins (38) and league victories (20). In the previous two seasons he guided MSU to a 67-50 (.571) mark and 36 OVC wins. McGuire recently made the 200-win plateau for his collegaite coaching career (NCAA games). He has 252 career wins when you add in his stint at Louisburg (N.C) College.
