Baseball drops regular-season finale at Murray State, 5-4

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MURRAY, Ky.– The Morehead State baseball team absorbed a 5-4 defeat in the 2016 regular-season finale Saturday as Murray State's Adam Bauer connected on a walk-off RBI double.
 
Morehead State, which had secured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with a win Friday, finishes the regular-season campaign at 31-25 overall and 17-13 in the league. Murray State closes its 2016 season at 26-29 and 15-15 in the conference, missing the tournament cutoff by one game.
 
The Eagles will open the OVC Tournament in Jackson, Tenn., next Wednesday (May 25) at 2 p.m. ET against fifth-seed Tennessee Tech. The Eages swept Tech in the regular-season series in March.
 
"We didn't really lose that game persay in the ninth inning, said head coach Mike McGuire. "We lost it earlier when we had plenty of chances to take a lead and didn't. We are pretty good when we are locked in and ready to go in the early innings, but if it takes us a while to get going, we usually are not good. We can't do that in the tournament. We have to score early and be ready right from the start. We struck out 30 times this weekend against an average pitching staff, and that's not acceptable."
 
Murray State senior righthander Brad Boegel fanned eight hitters in eight innings and Tyler Anderson, who got the win to improve to 2-1, made two Eagles whiff with runners on second and third in the ninth.
 
Pinch hitter Reed Thompson nailed a one-out single off MSU righty Tyler Keele in the bottom of the ninth, and Bauer, who also had his league-best ninth triple earlier in the game, sent a ball deep to the right centerfield gap for the game winner.
 
Morehead State starter Luke Humphreys sat down six Racers on strikeouts and worked into the sixth with a 4-2 lead. But, he walked two and hit a batter in that frame and gave up a game-tying single for a no decision.
 
The Eagles scored their runs in the third and sixth frames. Junior rightfielder Will Schneider had an RBI single in the third, and freshman leftfielder Niko Hulsizer staked his team to a 3-2 cushion then with two-run double.
 
Freshman designated hitter Trevor Snyder lifted a sac fly to right field in the sixth.
 
Hulsizer and junior centerfielder Ryan Kent combined for four of the Eagles' six hits.