Baseball Looks to Continue Winning Ways with Series at Belmont This Weekend

Game Notes (PDF) | Live Stats (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3) | Live Audio (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Winners of six consecutive games, the Morehead State baseball team continues Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend at Belmont.

The Eagles and Bruins are scheduled for games Friday (5 p.m. ET), Saturday (3 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.). All three can be heard live on the Eagle Sports Network on MSUEagles.com.

Morehead State is coming off a three-game sweep of Southeast Missouri last Thursday and Friday before having its Tuesday game at West Virginia postponed until April 5. During its six-game success streak, the Eagle offense has batted .398.

Junior lefthander Aaron Leasher (3-0, 2.33 ERA) is back to his Friday starting role after pitching game two of the SEMO series, while freshman lefty Dalton Stambaugh (1-1, 6.89 ERA) will start game two. Senior lefty Curtis Wilson (2-1, 3.24 ERA) rounds out an all-southpaw weekend rotation.

The Bruins enter the weekend at 7-8 overall and 2-1 in the league. They fell in their opener against Eastern Kentucky last weekend but won the final two games. Last season, in Morehead, the Eagles won the series 2-1.

GAME NOTES

THE BELMONT SERIES
The Eagles trail 29-6 in the all-time series with Belmont and are 5-8 against Belmont since the Bruins began OVC in 2013. The Eagles are 0-6 against Belmont in games in Nashville since 2013, and MSU will be looking for its first win at Belmont since May 13, 2003.

HOME SWEET HOME
Morehead State is 40-11 (.784) at Allen Field in the last two seasons, and the Eagles have won 13 straight series (non-conference and OVC) in the "friendly" confines of Allen Field.

TALON TIDBITS
During Morehead State's current six-game winning streak, the offense has generated a .396 batting average with 37 extra-base hits (22 doubles, 14 home runs) ... Three players, junior 2B Braxton Morris (.571), senior OF/INF Will Schneider (.560) and senior OF Michael Patrick (.519) batted better than .500 in the last six games ... In four of the last six games, the pitching staff has earned saves, and by four different pitchers (Seth Boyle, Jake Ziegelmeyer, David Calderon, Cable Wright) ... Sophomore SS Reid Leonard carries a 10-game hitting streak into the series and batted .395 (17-for-43) in that span ... Will Schneider has reached base safely in all 16 games in 2017 and now 21 straight since the end of the 2016 season ... Reid Leonard has a 16-game reached-base streak ... In the last eight games, Braxton Morris has increased his batting average 195 points (.217 to .412) while batting .571 (16-for-28) with seven multi-hit games ... Sophomore C Hunter Fain has only committed four errors in 536 career chances and thrown out 18 career base stealers.

FILLING UP THE STRIKE ZONE
Junior lefty Aaron Leasher and senior southpaw Curtis Wilson make up one of the top one-two pitching duos in the nation in terms of strikeout-to-walk ratio. Combined the two have fanned 52 batters and only issued seven walks. In his two seasons, Wilson has only walked 13 batters in 80.2 innings.

LEAGUE LEADER
Senior outfielder/infielder Will Schneider leads the OVC in batting average (.452) and hits (28).

NCAA LEADERS
Senior centerfielder Ryan Kent is the NCAA active career leader in runs scored with 157. Meanwhile, senior lefty Cable Wright ranks second in appearances (94) and relief appearances and senior righthander Luke Humphreys is fifth in games started (44).

FOUR OVER 1.000
Will Schneider (1.247), Braxton Morris (1.194), Michael Patrick (1.135) and Niko Hulsizer (1.113) all have OPS averages of 1.000 or better. OPS stands for on-base percentage plus slugging percentage.

GOING OUT WINNERS
The quartet of four-year seniors, RHP Luke Humphreys, OF Ryan Kent, C Jimmy Wright and LHP Cable Wright helped the Eagles to 99 wins (110 now including 2017) in their past three seasons. That's the highest win total in three seasons for one class.