BOX SCORE
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State baseball opened its OVC series with visiting Eastern Kentucky with an emphatic 7-2 victory at Allen Field Friday.
The Eagles' pitching staff fell into a 2-0 hole after the first inning, on two unearned runs, but never let up another tally as MSU improved to 12-5 overall in 2019 and 2-2 in the OVC. The triumph also gave head coach
Mike McGuire his 200th victory at Morehead State since taking over the reigns in 2013.
"We filled up the strike zone today, and that was key in limiting Eastern Kentucky's running game," said McGuire. "We also only struck out four times as opposed to seven or eight like we have been lately. All-around good effort, but we have to keep it up. EKU is a solid team."
Morehead State spotted the Colonels the two runs in the first but responded with three of its own in the bottom of the inning. A two-run homer by senior center-fielder
Connor Pauly tied it up, and senior catcher
Hunter Fain - who leads the nation in on-base percentage - singled home senior left-fielder
Jake Hammon later for the lead for good.
MSU added two more in the second as senior shortstop
Reid Leonard connected on his first long ball of the year, and sophomore third baseman
Stephen Hill banged one out of the park too.
The scoring concluded in the fifth as senior first baseman
Trevor Snyder smacked an RBI double and scored later on a wild pitch.
On the hill, junior lefty
Dalton Stambaugh (3-1) tossed a career-high 123 pitches (83 in the strike zone) and stymied EKU for 6.2 innings without allowing an earned run. Freshman righty
Zack Smith allowed four hits but no runs in 0.2 frames, and junior closer
Jake Ziegelmeyer entered with the bases loaded in the eighth and got a double play. He allowed a ninth-inning double but slammed the door for his third save this year.
Pauly and Snyder had two hits each for the homestanding Eagles.
The teams will play game two of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.
