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OXFORD, Ala. -- Despite falling behind 3-0 early on, the Morehead State baseball team's offense got rolling later on, and the Eagles upended Eastern Kentucky 12-7 to advance in the winner's bracket at the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Wednesday at Choccolocco Park.

MSU moved to 33-23 overall, while EKU slipped to 27-29 overall.

A fourth-inning bases-loaded walk from junior shortstop Reid Leonard gave the Eagles a 4-3 cushion, and they managed to push that to 8-3 before the frame ended. EKU cut the lead to three twice (8-5 and 10-7) but both times, MSU got clutch hits to extend its advantage.

With the score 8-5, senior DH Tyler Niemann opted not to lay down a sac bunt with two strikes, but instead ripped an RBI double down the right-field line. Junior right-fielder Jake Hammon followed with the Eagles' 38th sac fly of the season for the 10-5 lead.

EKU took advantage of an error in the eighth to score twice, but senior third baseman Eli Boggess put the runs right back on the board in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single.

Junior left-fielder Niko Hulsizer led the bats with a 4-for-5 afternoon, while Boggess was 3-for-5. Leonard moved his school-record reached-base streak to 48 games by walking three times - his 49th, 50th and 51st free passes this year. Connor Pauly also had a single to move his reached-base streak to 22 contests.

Eagle starter Dalton Stambaugh (6-3) picked up the win, surrendering five runs in 5.2 innings with five punchouts. Senior Kyle Cantu entered with the bases loaded in the eighth and managed to not allow a run in 1.1 innings for his second save.

Morehead State will play at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday against either second-seeded Southeast Missouri or seventh-seeded Murray State.