By Matt Schabert, Morehead State Athletic Media Relations
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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Senior third baseman
Eli Boggess and junior first baseman
Trevor Snyder each cranked a pair of home runs, and the Morehead State baseball team scored 22 runs in the final four innings en route to a 24-11 victory at Eastern Illinois Saturday.
The Eagles, who scored 12 runs in the eighth inning, improved to 26-18 overall and 13-7 in the OVC as they have now scored at least 24 runs in three separate OVC games.
"We did some great things offensively," said head coach
Mike McGuire. "And even though some guys didn't have great days, they still got on base quite a bit and allowed guys like Trevor, Eli and (junior center-fielder) Connor (Pauly) behind them to drive them in. And I thought we pitched pretty well too. It was tough pitching today, but (starter) Dalton (Stambaugh) showed a lot of grit after giving up a lot of walks. And I thought guys behind him did a nice job as well."
Snyder was 4-for-7 with two dingers and five RBI while scoring four times. He now has nine RBI in the first two games in the series. Boggess, who had no home runs in 2018, went deep twice and was 3-for-7 with five RBI. Pauly, who leads the team with a .443 batting average against league pitching, lifted a home run out and finished 3-for-5 with four RBI and four runs scored.
Junior shortstop
Reid Leonard, senior right-fielder
Tyler Niemann and junior DH
Jake Hammon all collected three hits as well as the Eagles pounded out 23 hits. Hammon was 3-for-3 in a pinch-hit role and stayed in. Leonard increased his team-best reached-base streak to 36 games, just five short of the program record held by current assistant coach
Kane Sweeney.
MSU fell behind 2-0 in the first, tied it 2-2 in the second and fell behind again 4-2 in the fifth before the bats went wild. The Eagles strung together seven straight hits and scored six times in the sixth frame to take an 8-4 lead they never relinquished. EIU got a two-run homer in the sixth before Snyder smacked his first round-tripper of the day in the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh, EIU had bases loaded, but reliever
JC Hatcher coaxed an inning-ending double play to set the stage for an offensive breakout.
The Eagles sent 17 hitters to the plate in the 12-run eighth inning, collecting eight hits against three different Panther pitchers. Snyder then put the capper on the outburst with a three-run homer in the ninth.
Sophomore righty
Jake Ziegelmeyer, the second of five Eagle pitchers, picked up the win to improve to 4-0 in 2018 and now 9-1 in his two-year career.
The teams will play the series rubber match on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
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