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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State baseball had the potential tying and winning runs on second and third base in the bottom of the ninth Saturday against Eastern Illinois, but the victory was not meant to be as the Eagles ultimately fell 9-8 to the Panthers at Allen Field.
Morehead State dipped to 27-16 overall and 12-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Eagles trailed 6-0 after five innings but scored in the final four frames to make it interesting.
"To have the winning runs in scoring position with one of our best hitters up in the ninth, I think we would take that almost any day," said head coach
Mike McGuire. " We just came up short. We missed too many opportunities with runners on base, or to make a better pitch, earlier in the game."
The Eagles had runners in scoring position in the first four innings, but grounded into four double plays.
In the eighth inning, sophomore short
Reid Leonard cleared the bases and tied the game at 6-6 with a double to the gap in right centerfield. Junior third baseman
Eli Boggess, and junior first baseman
Tyler Niemann scored easily, and senior centerfielder
Ryan Kent motored all the way from first to tie it.
But, in the top of the ninth, EIU's Dougie Parks connected on a three-run homer to give the visitors just enough of a cushion to finally clinch the game.
Junior second baseman
Braxton Morris made it a 9-7 game with a sac fly in the ninth, and then the inning was prolonged by a throwing error on the second baseman. A fielding error by the same EIU player allowed senior rightfielder
Will Schneider to score. Leonard lifted a high fly ball to deep right field, but the park held it for the final out.
Schneider and sophomore leftfielder
Niko Hulsizer had two hits apiece as the Eagles finished with nine. EIU had 14 hits, led by three from leftfielder Logan Beaman.
Senior righthander
Luke Humphreys allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, the only batter he faced, and was saddled with the loss. Of note, senior lefty
Cable Wright made his 108th career appearance, which sets the Ohio Valley Conference record. Kent also set the Morehead State career record for at-bats in the game.
The Eagles will try to collect a win Sunday when the teams play the series finale at 1 p.m. ET.
