Baseball completes second straight sweep of Jax State

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MOREHEAD, Ky. – Morehead State baseball grabbed an early 6-0 lead and added a seven-spot in the seventh frame en route to a 14-5 win over Jacksonville State and a series sweep of the Gamecocks Sunday at Allen Field.
 
MSU (30-22/16-11 OVC) completed the first back-to-back 30-win seasons in program history and clinched a sweep of the regular season series with JSU for the second consecutive year. MSU has now won seven straight regular-season contests in the series with the Gamecocks (29-22/17-10 OVC). The Eagles also honored seven senior members of the team prior to the game.
 
While it was senior day, it was the Eagle freshmen who did the majority of the damage to JSU on the weekend. Leftfielder Niko Hulsizer, who finished 10-for-14 with eight RBI on the weekend, was 3-for-5 today and homered for the second straight game, while designated hitter Trevor Snyder compiled a career-best 5-for-5 day. Shortstop Reid Leonard also went 3-for-5 with three RBI and scored three times, and catcher Hunter Fain drew four walks and scored twice.
 
That quartet combined to go 29-of-49 (.591) with 20 RBI and crossed the plate 24 times in the three contests.
 
"I think the key to this weekend's success was that the bottom of our order came through in a big way," said head coach Mike McGuire. "Our freshmen are starting to play like sophomores, and we had hoped at this point in the season that's the progress they would make."
 
The Eagles, who scored 43 runs in the series, put three runs on the board in the first innings, added another in the second and scored twice in the third before JSU got a pair of home runs to creep back to within 6-4 in the fifth.
 
Hulsizer had an RBI double in the fifth for a 7-4 Eagle lead, and then JSU got another homer in the sixth but that's as close as the visitors got. Hulsizer hit his two-run homer in the seventh, and junior Will Schneider connected on his team-best 10^th round-tripper to score three more in the seventh.
 
On the mound, junior righty Luke Humphreys improved to 5-4, tossing five innings and with four runs allowed and five strikeouts. Senior Tyler Keele made his final Allen Field outing his best, throwing the final four innings for his team-high seventh save. He scattered five hits but only surrendered one run on a home run.
 
Taylor Hawthorne was 3-for-3, while Tyler Gamble smacked a three-run clout for the Gamecocks. Paschal Petrongolo sent two balls over the fence and now has 10 homers this season. Derrick Adams lasted just 2.1 innings and slipped to 3-3 while allowing six earned runs.
 
Morehead State will finish the regular season on the road, starting with a game at current No. 11 Vanderbilt Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET. The final OVC series is Thursday-Saturday at Murray State.