Baseball Tops Alabama State 8-1 Behind Double-Digit Strikeout Night from Leasher

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HOOVER, Ala. – Junior lefthhander Aaron Leasher allowed just one run over eight inning and struck out 10 as the Morehead State Baseball team opened the Hoover Classic with an 8-1 triumph over Alabama State Friday evening at the Hoover Met Stadium.
 
The Eagles improved to 4-2 with their third straight win. The Hornets slipped to 1-5, also losing 9-2 earlier in the day to Iowa.
 
Leasher (2-0) surrendered a leadoff double but then retired 10 of the next 11 ASU batters before giving up a single in the fifth. The only run for the Hornets came across in the eighth after an error, but Leasher struck out the final two hitters.
 
"We got another strong performance from Aaron today," said head coach Mike McGuire. "We made a few too many miscues behind him, but I went out in the eighth and we had (Jake) Ziegelmeyer ready but he said he wanted to finish out the inning, and he did. The mark of a good pitcher is bearing down when runners get on base, and he did that tonight."
 
Ziegelmeyer, a freshman, nailed down the final three outs.
 
Offensively, the Eagles strung together four hits in the second inning and scored three times before being effectively silenced until the seventh and eighth frames when they combined for the final four runs. Morehead State also scored twice on wild pitches and once on a passed ball.
 
Sophomore DH Trevor Snyder's RBI double got the Eagles on the board in the second, and junior third baseman Chase Teter added an RBI single to score junior first baseman Tyler Niemann. Teter also plated Niemann with an RBI single in the fourth.
 
Morehead State tacked on a trio of runs in the eighth, including junior third baseman Eli Boggess' first Division I hit and RBI.
 
Sophomore catcher Hunter Fain, senior rightfielder Will Schneider and Teter each had two hits apiece. Fain, Schneider, sophomore leftfielder Niko Hulsizer and sophomore shortstop Reid Leonard have now reached base in all six games, and for Fain it's now 15 straight since last season.
 
"If we are going to hang a big number on the scoreboard, we have to get contributions from the entire lineup, and I thought we did tonight," said McGuire.
 
The Eagles return to the Hoover Met on Saturday for a rematch with ASU at 1 p.m. ET.