BOX SCORE (PDF)
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A trio of timely sacrifice flies, two home runs, and stellar efforts by two pitchers propelled the Morehead State baseball team to a 6-3 win at Furman on college baseball opening day Friday.
Junior lefty
Dalton Stambaugh picked up the victory, tossing 5.0 innings with six strikeouts. Sophomore righty
Alex Garbrick, who missed the entire 2018 season recovering from surgery, was nearly untouched in his first action back. He collected a four-inning save, struck out five and only surrendered an eighth-inning RBI double.
At the plate, senior
Hunter Fain drilled a solo homer run in the sixth inning to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead, while junior DH
Dom Peroni (who led the team by going 3-for-5) put the finishing touches on the run scoring with a solo homer in the seventh, his first Division I round-tripper.
"You always want to win that first game, but more importantly is how are you going to play?" said head coach
Mike McGuire. "We got great pitching. Dalton worked though some tough spots, and (Alex) (Gar)Brick was lights out. He pitched like I thought he would, he has been really great in the preseason. When you aren't having a great day at the play, situational hitting is important and we got that today."
The Eagles jumped on top 1-0 in the third when junior rightfielder
Ryan Layne sent a sac fly to right centerfield to score senior shortstop
Reid Leonard. After the hosts moved ahead 2-1 later, the Eagles regained the upperhand for good in the fifth.
Senior leftfielder
Jake Hammon singled home senior first baseman
Trevor Snyder, while sophomore second baseman
Bryce Hensor joined in the "small ball" effort with a sac fly to score Layne to make it 3-2.
Meanwhile Garbrick retired the first six Paladin batters he faced before opening the eighth with a walk. He coaxed a double play henceforth to erase that runner.
The Eagles had 11 hits, led by Peroni and two each from Snyder, Leonard and Layne. Hammon extended his reached-base streak to 23 games from last season and his hitting streak to 18 games. Senior centerfielder
Connor Pauly was held hitless but did draw a walk to up his team-best reached-base streak to 30 games since last year.
The Eagles and Paladins are scheduled to play game two of the series at 1 p.m. ET Saturday.
