Baseball Sees Lead Evaporate in Falling 9-5 at UT Martin

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MARTIN, Tenn. -- Morehead State baseball held a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday at UT Martin, but the Skyhawks touched up the Eagle bullpen for eight runs over the final three frames as the Eagles fell 9-5 and dropped the series to the Skyhawks.

Morehead State slipped to 22-9 overall and 8-3 in the OVC with its third consecutive setback. UTM moved to 11-16 overall and 3-11 in the conference.

"Our bullpen has been the strength of our club for the last few weeks, but today it was unfortunately not," said head coach Mike McGuire. "(Starter) Dalton Stambaugh pitched very well, but after that we issued way too many free bases. We are still a great club, and we have to have a short memory and come back and get back on track tomorrow."

Stambaugh only allowed four hits and one run through five frames. However, the next five relievers walked seven batters, hit two and had a wild pitch. David Calderon (0-1) was tagged with the loss, surrendering four runs in one inning of work.

Morehead State broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the sixth, led off with an inning-opening triple by sophomore DH Trevor Snyder, the first of his career. Sophomore catcher Hunter Fain followed with an RBI single, and then junior third baseman Eli Boggess slammed a triple of his own to score Fain. Senior centerfielder Ryan Kent's single then pushed home Boggess. It was Kent's 167th career single, moving him into a tie for third place in program history.

The Eagles also got on the board first today, as in the second inning Snyder raced all all the way around from first to score on a ground ball and an errant throw that sailed high at first base and careened down the right field line.

The Eagles finished with 11 hits, tying the Skyhawks in that stats category. Sophomore rightfielder Niko Hulsizer, Snyder, Fain and Boggess each totaled two hits. Hulsizer increased his team-best reached-base streak to 15 games, while sophomore shortstop Reid Leonard led off the game with a single to move to 13 straight games reaching base.

The hosts ended up pushing across two runs in the sixth and seventh stanzas and four in the go-ahead eighth inning.

The teams will wrap up the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.