Baseball Wins in Walk-Off Fashion for Second Consecutive Day, Downing Massachusetts 6-5

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MOREHEAD, Ky. – For the second straight day, the Morehead State baseball team won in walk-off fashion as sophomore shortstop Reid Leonard's two-out single through the left side drove home sophomore Jake Hammon with the winning run in the 10^th inning Saturday to lift the Eagles to a 6-5 win over Massachusetts at Allen Field.
 
The Eagles trailed 5-0 for the second straight day, but scored three times in the eighth and once in the ninth to send the game to extra innings. Morehead State won its eighth consecutive game and 16^th in the last 17 games while also securing its 15^th straight home series win since 2015. The Eagles are now 47-11 at Allen Field in the last three years.
 
"It seems like it's a different guy each day playing hero, but that's the beauty of our team," said head coach Mike McGuire. "I really love our resiliency."
 
Senior Jimmy Wright drew a pinch-hit walk to open the bottom of the 10^th, and Hammon pinch ran for him. Following a line out and a ground out to move Hammon to second, he scooted to third on a wild pitch. Leonard pushed a 2-1 pitch through the hold on the left side to send Hammon home.
 
The Eagles trailed 5-1 in the eighth, but junior second Braxton scored senior leftfielder Michael Patrick on a sacrifice fly, and then sophomore DH Trevor Snyder's double plated sophomore rightfielder Niko Hulsizer. Junior third baseman Eli Boggess singled to right field to score senior first baseman Will Schneider, but the tying run (in the form of pinch runner Chase Teter) was ruled thrown out at the plate on a bang-bang slide.
 
Schneider tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth when his two-out single allowed junior pinch runner Tyler Niemann to slide in ahead of the tag.
 
For the second consecutive game, the Eagle bullpen allowed the offense the chance to rally. Freshman righty Jake Ziegelmeyer and junior righthander JC Hatcher kept the Minutemen offense at bay and with just one run for the final 5.1 innings. Hatcher (2-1) was credited the win, surrendering just one hit and striking out two. Starter Dalton Stambaugh cruised into the fifth with a career-high eight strikeouts but gave up an RBI double, two-run homer and two-run single before exiting trailing 5-0.

"I thought Dalton pitched pretty well, he just stumbled a bit in the fifth, but our bullpen has really become a strength of our team. We have a lot of guys we can call on and rely upon now," McGuire added.
 
UMass reliever Casey Aubin allowed the game-winning hit, and Kevin Hassett (1-2) was charged with the loss.
 
Boggess was 3-for-4, while Patrick, Leonard and sophomore catcher Hunter Fain had two hits each as the Eagles collected 11 hits for their eighth straight double-digit hit performance.
 
The teams will conclude the weekend series on Sunday at 12 p.m. ET.