Baseball Rallies Late to Improve to 4-0 in OVC For First Time in 12 Seasons

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. --  Despite striking out 11 times at the plate Friday at Belmont, the Morehead State baseball team found just enough offense late in the game and got a strong pitching effort to defeat the Bruins 4-3 at Rose Park.

The Eagles, who won their seventh straight game, improved to a perfect 4-0 in the OVC for the first time since the 2005 season. It also marked the first win for the MSU program at Belmont since 2003.

"For whatever reason, since I've been here, we have not been able to win here, but today it was the great pitching that ultimately got it done," said head coach Mike McGuire. "Good clubs find a way to win, even when they are not at their best, but we pitched it very well today. We weren't up to our expectations offensively today, but in the last couple of innings, we did have good at-bats and had some great situational hitting."

Trailing 2-1 heading to the eighth, the Eagles used a leadoff single by senior centerfielder Ryan Kent and a double by sophomore shortstop Reid Leonard to kickstart the rally. A pair of ground outs (by senior outfielder Michael Patrick and sophomore outfielder Niko Hulsizer) pushed the tying and go-ahead runs across, and senior Will Schneider moved his reached-base streak to 22 straight games with an RBI single and an insurance run.

Junior lefty Aaron Leasher improved to 4-0 with the win, recording six strikeouts in eight full innings. Junior righty JC Hatcher got the first two outs in the ninth, and senior lefty Cable Wright nailed down the final out for his team-best fourth save. Junior third baseman Eli Boggess snagged a line drive on a dive to end the game with the potential tying run at third base.

Junior second baseman Braxton Morris got his team on the board with a solo homer, his third of the year, in the second inning. After that though, Belmont starter Tyler Vaughn cruised through the next five frames and struck out 11 Eagle hitters. Reliever Dom Veltri came on in the eighth following the two hits by Kent and Leonard and could not shut MSU down. Vaughn was charged with the loss.

The Eagles finished with six hits, led by Boggess with two, including a double.

The teams will continue the series at 3 p.m. ET Saturday.