Stambaugh's Dominance Highlights Baseball's 5-0 Shut Out at Jacksonville State

BOX SCORE

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- To say Morehead State junior pitcher Dalton Stambaugh was good Friday night would be an understatement. Dominating is more of the fitting term.

Stambaugh only allowed two hits (both in the first inning) and struck out eight as the Eagles defeated Jacksonville State 5-0 at Jim Case Stadium to improve to 28-15 overall and 12-6 in the OVC.

"Dalton has thrown some really nice games for us in his career, but that may have been his best ever tonight," said head coach Mike McGuire. "He worked ahead all night, and I thought he set the tone by getting out of that first inning."

Stambaugh, who improved to 5-2, also tossed a complete-game shutout at Alabama A&M last season. The home team had runners on second and third with two outs in the first after Nic Gaddis' double to left field and an infield single, but a ground out to end the inning started a run of 17 consecutive outs for Stambaugh and the Eagle defense. Stambaugh's only blemish the remainder of the game was a five-pitch walk in the seventh inning, but then he coaxed an inning-ending double play two pitches later.

Meanwhile the offense pecked away at JSU (21-20/12-7 OVC) starter Garrett Farmer (4-1), who entered as the OVC ERA leader. The Eagles scored single runs in the second, third and fifth frames off Farmer before taking advantage of fielding miscues to add two more in the eighth off relief pitchers.

Junior second baseman Ryan Layne's RBI single to right field plated the first run in the second, scoring senior left-fielder Jake Hammon, who had doubled. Of MSU's 11 hits, five were doubles.

In the third, sophomore first baseman Stephen Hill crushed a double to deep left field that ended up going off the wall to score senior shortstop Reid Leonard. MSU made it 3-0 in the fifth when senior center-fielder Connor Pauly singled home freshman right-fielder Zach Boyd.

And in the eighth, with two outs, junior third baseman Dom Peroni's grounder to third was thrown away at first to score senior DH Trevor Snyder, who had doubled off the wall in left field. Peroni then scored on an error when Boyd's bunt single got away from first base.

"You are seeing now how we are adapting to playing on the road with this team we have this year," said McGuire. "We are doing the small things now that win games and score runs. We laid down a few bunts and even got on base on two of them."

Hill, Snyder and Leonard each totaled two hits.

The teams will play game two of the series Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.