BOX SCORE

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Despite rallying to tie the game in the eighth inning, Morehead State baseball team saw Butler plate two runs with two outs in the bottom of the frame to pull out a 4-2 win over the Eagles at Bulldog Park Wednesday.

A sacrifice fly off the bat of junior center-fielder Connor Pauly plated junior left-fielder Niko Hulsizer with the tying run in the eighth, but Butler took advantage of an infield single and a wild pitch to get runners on second and third in the home half of the eighth. A two-out, two-strike single plated the go-ahead and insurance runs.

"This was definitely a disappointing outcome because I felt like for the first five innings we hit the ball hard and really did not get anything to show for it," said head coach Mike McGuire. "But in the final innings, we basically had some bad at bats and did not compete. We pitched it very well and put oursleves in a position to get the big hit or get that quality at-bat to score, but we did not execute at all late in the game. We have to learn from this because we will be in similar games like this later, and these are games that we need to win."

MSU trailed 2-0 before a two-out fielding error in the fourth allowed Hulsizer to scamper home to cut the deficit in half. Despite not getting a hit, Hulsizer scored both runs as he got on via an error and walked too.

Freshman righthander Will Lozinak gave the Eages four strong innings in relief of starter Kyle Cantu, who surrendered two runs in the opening two farmes. Lozinak only gave up two hits and struck out three. Cory Conway (4-2) ultimately was tagged with the loss, giving up two hits in the eighth, including a chopper back to him that the Butler baserunner beat out to first base to start their rally.

MSU was limited to four hits. Junior shortstop Reid Leonard had one of the hits to extend his reached-base streak to 26 games. Senior second baseman Braxton Morris was 0-for-4 and saw his team-best 34-game reached base finally thwarted.

Morehead State will now travel to SIU Edwardsville for a three-game series that gets underway Friday at 7 p.m. ET.