Baseball Rides Success Streak Into Mid-Week Pair with Alabama A&M

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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Winners of 12 of their last 13 ball games, the Morehead State baseball team now heads into a mid-week home series with Alabama A&M.

The Eagles and Bulldogs will play Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET and Wednesday at 11 a.m. Weather permitting, Wednesday's game will be attended by nearly 1,000 area elementary-school children as the Eagles attempt to set an Allen Field attendance record.

Morehead State (17-6) is batting a blistering .398 in its 10 home games, and the Eagles have won nine straight at home and now 14 consecutive weekend series at home since 2015. The Eagles are coming off a three-game sweep of Eastern Kentucky this past weekend.

Alabama A&M enters the week at 8-19 overall but swept conference opponent Alcorn State this past weekend.

GAME NOTES

THE A&M SERIES
According to records, this week will mark the sixth and seventh all-time games versus Alabama A&M with the Eagles holding a 4-1 lead in the series. MSU opened the 2013 season with a win in Huntsville before splitting a two-game mid-week battle there in 2014. In 2015, the Eagles won two rain-shortened six-inning games at Allen Field.

PROTECT THIS HOUSE
Morehead State is 43-11 (.796) at Allen Field in the last three seasons, and the Eagles have won 14 straight series (non-conference and OVC) in the "friendly" confines of Allen Field since 2015.

TALON TIDBITS
Morehead State enters the week with wins in 12 of its last 13 games ... Senior OF Michael Patrick leads the team with a .512 (22-of-43) batting average in the 10 home games ... Senior CF Ryan Kent has 12 hits in his last five games and raised his batting average from .185 to .279 ... Kent is now in sixth place in career hits at MSU with 224 ... Junior 3B Eli Boggess carries a team-best 10-game reached-base streak into the week and has five multi-hit games in that span ... Junior 2B Braxton Morris leads the team with 13 multi-hit games and seven multi-RBI games ... The Eagles are 12-2 when senior OF/INF Will Schneider bats in the cleanup spot in the batting order and are 8-1 when Braxton Morris hits sixth ... Nine of sophomore SS Reid Leonard's 31 hits have come on a two-strike count, and last year he had 25 hits with two strikes on him.

CONTINUING THE CLIMB
With two wins this week, the 2017 team could make history with the best 25-game start in program history. The 1976 team began the season 18-6 before falling in its next game to go 18-7.

HE'S SO FAIN
Sophomore catcher Hunter Fain has been named to the Johnny Bench Award Watch List, honoring the nation's top catcher. Fain is batting .307 with five doubles. He has also thrown out 35 percent (5 of 14) would-be base stealers.

NCAA LEADERS
Senior centerfielder Ryan Kent is the NCAA active career leader in runs scored with 164. Meanwhile, senior lefty Cable Wright ranks second in appearances (97) and relief appearances and senior righthander Luke Humphreys is sixth in games started (45).

KEEP CALLING ON THE CABLE GUY
Cable Wright already owns the Morehead State career record for appearances with 97. Wright needs 11 more appearances this season to set the Ohio Valley Conference record, held by Eastern Kentucky's Robert Teague (1988-91) with 107. Wright lis tied for the team lead with four saves in 2017.

FLYIN RYAN
Senior outfielder Ryan Kent has the
opportunity to set the Morehead State record for doubles in a career, needing just 13 to accomplish the feat. He is also on the all-time singles list (3rd - 168), as well as total plate appearances (3rd - 861), walks (4th - 106), runs scored (5th - 164), at-bats (6th - 711), games played (8th - 187), sac bunts (8th - 13) and sac flies (10th - 6).

LUKE IS NO FLUKE
Senior pitcher Luke Humphreys has tied the Morehead State career record for starts with 45 and is now just four wins from tying the career wins record.

NIKO 'HULK'SIZER
Sophomore outfielder Niko Hulsizer launched two home runs (2-run and 3-run) in game three of the EKU series and now leads the Eagles with seven long balls. Hulsizer also leads the team with a .710 slugging percentage.

TWO MORE ON THE CHARTS
Luke Humphreys and Aaron Leasher now rank among the top 10 best strikeout pitchers in program history. Humphreys is in sixth place with 197 punchouts, while Leasher is in ninth place with 188.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
Senior outfielder Michael Patrick has shown tremendous improvement from his junior season when he was only able to get three hits in his final 24 games (note: he did absorb two broken bones last year). But, he is batting .360 with six homers and has scored 25 times in 2017. In his last four games, Patrick was 9-for-18 at the plate.