BOX SCORE | ARCHIVED AUDIO

MURRAY, Ky. -- Morehead State baseball found itself in a 6-0 deficit after the first inning Sunday at Murray State and put together a furious, six-run rally in the ninth but ultimately fell 14-10 to the Racers at Reagan Field.

The Eagles slipped to 17-10 in the OVC and 31-21 overall. Murray State moved to 11-16 in the conference and 24-26 overall. The Racers have now claimed the series against the Eagles in 2014, 2016 and 2018 in games played on their home field.

The Racers strung together five hits and also scored twice on bases loaded walks to grab the 6-0 cushion in the first frame.

Senior second baseman Braxton Morris doubled off the wall in left field to score juniors Jake Hammon and Hunter Fain to trim the lead to 6-2 in the third. Morris also spanked his fifth home run of the season off the top of the left-field wall in the sixth inning.

But, the home team added two more in the bottom of the sixth to build a 10-3 lead. 

Junior shortstop Reid Leonard increased his school-record reached-base streak to 44 games with an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning. The hosts' right-fielder, Brandon Gutzler, tacked on a three-run double to make it 14-4 in the eighth.

The Eagles made it interesting in the top of the ninth, scoring the six runs. Included was a bases-clearing double for Morris.

Morris finished 4-for-5 with six runs batted in, while senior first baseman Tyler Niemann collected three hits. Leonard and Hammon had two hits as the Eagles tallied 16 for the day.

Starter Kyle Cantu (4-1) only recorded two outs and allowed all six runs in the first inning to be pinned with his first loss. Lefty David Looney chewed up 4.1 innings in relief and fanned four.

Morehead State returns home for the final four regular-season games. It starts Wednesday against Western Carolina at 4 p.m. ET and continues Thursday-Saturday against nationally-ranked Tennessee Tech.