BOX SCORE
MARION, Ill. -- Led by a 4-for-5, three-RBI effort from senior center-fielder
Connor Pauly and an eight-run inning, the Morehead State baseball club eliminated rival Eastern Kentucky from the OVC Tournament late Friday night with an 11-3 victory over the Colonels at Rent One Ballpark.
The Eagles set the school record for wins in improving to 39-20 overall. EKU, which had knocked off MSU in the opening round Wednesday, finished its season at 32-27 while being ousted by the Eagles for the second consecutive season. No. 3 seed Morehead State advances to the consolation bracket finals at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday where it will face No. 2 Austin Peay. The winner will move on to battle Jacksonville State at 5 p.m. but will have to beat the Gamecocks twice (also winning on Sunday) to win the title.
Pauly had an RBI single in an eight-run fifth-inning outburst and belted a two-run homer, his team-leading 12th of the season, off the Colonels' OVC ERA-leading closer Aaron Oschenbein in the eighth frame.
MSU, which had been held to only three runs in the first two games, got another masterful pitching effort from a pair of young arms. Sophomore starter
Alex Garbrick tossed the first six innings and struck out eight, while freshman righty
Landon Weins only surrendered two hits in the final three innings with a career-best six punchouts - his third save.
EKU's only runs came in the top of the second when the bases were cleared on Corey Conklin's high riser to left field that ended up in the swirling wind and dropped behind three MSU fielders. The Colonels were held to seven hits.
Trailing 3-1 heading to the fifth, MSU sent 13 batters to the plate and generated the eight runs off only four hits but also drew five walks in the frame. The big hits came from junior DH
Jon Burghardt, who slashed a two-run single to right field on a two-strike count, and senior catcher
Hunter Fain. Fain cleared the bases with a three-run double into the right-field gap. Junior right-fielder
Ryan Layne also drew a bases-loaded walk.
Sophomore third baseman
Stephen Hill got the adrenaline rushing early on with an inside-the-park home run in the first inning. His deep fly to center eluded a diving fielder and bounced all the way to the wall. The cutoff throw was mishandled slightly, allowing Hill to motor all the way around the base paths for his sixth round-tripper of the year. It marked the first inside-the-park homer in the OVC Tournament since Michael Bishop of Jacksonville State in 2014 in Jackson, Tenn.
Garbrick was credited with the victory to improve to 3-4. The loss was pinned on Jacob Abbott, who allowed four runs while getting only one out in the fifth.
