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COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A bend-but-don't-break effort by three Morehead State pitchers, coupled with a two-out, four-run rally in the first inning, propelled the Morehead State baseball team past Tennessee Tech, 6-3, at Bush Stadium Friday night.
The Eagles (34-20, 18-10 OVC) handed Tech just its second conference series loss this year, and MSU has now grabbed seven consecutive victories against the Golden Eagles (36-19, 22-7 OVC).
Freshman
Jake Ziegelmeyer surrendered nine total hits, but five in the first inning when TTU scored twice, and only gave up two runs in three innings to be credited with a win and improve to 5-1. Junior righty
Seth Boyle shut down the hosts for the next two innings, and junior righthander
JC Hatcher struck out four and only allowed a two-out homer in the ninth inning against his ERA. It was Hatcher's second career save and first since March 18 at Belmont.
"Jake had a rough first inning, but to his credit he went right back out there and kept pitching and kept fighting," said head coach
Mike McGuire. "And I can't say enough about Seth and JC. We are going to need those guys in the tournament."
The Eagle bats hit into two quick outs, but then senior rightfielder
Will Schneider singled to kick-start a four-run flurry. Junior third baseman
Eli Boggess followed with an RBI double, and then sophomore DH
Trevor Snyder smacked an RBI double off the wall in centerfield to make it 2-0. Junior second baseman
Braxton Morris singled home Snyder, and junior first baseman
Tyler Niemann - who had been hit by a pitch, trotted home on a throwing error at the end of the play to make it 4-0.
"We know in the tournament we might have some situations where we need to score with two outs, and that proved we can do it there tonight," McGuire added.
Schneider added a run-scoring single in the fourth, and senior centerfielder
Ryan Kent picked up an RBI on a ground out in the fifth. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, but Boyle caught leadoff man Alex Junior looking on a third strike to end the frame.
Tennessee Tech proceeded to get 15 total hits to MSU's eight, but TTU also left 14 runners on base. Sophomore leftfielder
Niko Hulsizer also threw out a runner trying to score in the first inning.
Schneider and Morris collected two hits apiece.
Morehead State will look to sweep TTU for the second straight season when the teams conclude action at 2 p.m. ET Saturday.
