BOX SCORES (GAME ONE | GAME TWO)
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – Facing the team's first twinbilling of the season, Morehead State baseball fell on the wrong end of a pair of decisions Saturday against Michigan State. The Eagles (0-3) dropped both games by nearly identical scores of 5-2 and 5-3 with the victories improving the Spartans to 3-0 on the season.
On the mound, Morehead State recorded 23 strikeouts during the two games as the Eagles' starters, redshirt juniors
Alex Garbrick and
Cory Conway registered nine and four punchouts, respectively. Out of the pen senior
Jake Ziegelmeyer (one), redshirt sophomore
John Sherman (six) and redshirt junior
Donovan Baldocchi (three) added strikeouts.
The Eagles and Spartans continue their series tomorrow afternoon with the final game of the four-game season-opening series. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. ET.
HOW IT HAPPENED
GAME ONE (MICHIGAN STATE 5, MOREHEAD STATE 2)
T3: Junior rightfielder Peyton Dillingham opened the inning by ripping a single to left field before stealing his way into scoring position on the first pitch of redshirt sophomore second baseman Bryce Hensor's at-bat. With Dillingham in scoring position, Hensor laid down a sacrifice bunt attempt to advance the runner while subsequently reaching base himself on a throwing error by Michigan State starting pitcher Jarret Olson. With two outs in the inning and runners on the corners, senior first baseman Dom Peroni drew the second of his two walks in the game to load the bases before redshirt junior third baseman Stephen Hill coerced a walk from Olson to bring home the game's first run.
B7: Following a walk to second baseman Bailey Peterson—who later advanced to second on a wild pitch—Michigan State designated hitter Casey Mayes raked a double to leftfield that found the base of the wall to score Peterson from second base and tie the game.
T8: Having relinquished the lead for the first time in the game, Morehead State responded quite quickly to regain the lead as Hill drove home his second run of the game, muscling a 1-0 Jesse Heikkinen pitch into the leftfield bullpen for his first home run of the year, giving the Eagles a 2-1 advantage.
B8: After laying down a sacrifice bunt to put two runners in scoring position, Spartan first baseman Peter Ahn executed a suicide squeeze to tie the game, reaching base as third baseman Zach Iverson slid in under the tag of Morehead State catcher Brody Shoupe to tie the game at two apiece. Following a Bryce Kelley RBI single, Michigan State returned to the squeeze play to extend their lead as Ahn scored thanks to a safety squeeze executed by Peterson. Michigan State's final run scored on a fielder's choice to create the Spartan's 5-2 advantage.
GAME TWO (MICHIGAN STATE 5, MOREHEAD STATE 3)
B2: Michigan State opened the scoring as Iverson tripled into the right-centerfield gap driving home two before subsequently scoring himself on a sacrifice fly off the bat of catcher Gabe Sotres.
B4: The Spartans added two more runs in the fourth with the first coming following a throwing error on a failed pickoff during a stolen base attempt by centerfielder Danny Gleaves while the second scored following an RBI single by shortstop Dillon Kark.
T5: Following a one-out walk by senior designated hitter Jon Burghardt and a one-out single by redshirt freshman Tim Petrucelli, junior catcher Jack Gardner drove home two as he laced a 0-1 pitch into the left-centerfield gap for a double.
T6: Following an inning-opening hit-by-pitch to redshirt junior shortstop Logan Goodnight, Peroni brought home the Eagles' final run with a single through the middle, plating Goodnight from second base.
NOTABLE
Stephen Hill and Jack Gardner both put forth multi-RBI efforts in Saturday's game with Hill collecting his ninth career multi-RBI game as an Eagle and Gardner collecting his first.
With a hit in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, Brody Shoupe extending his hitting streak to seven games while also extending his reached-base streak to eight games.
Having reached safely in all three games this weekend, Ryan Layne extended his reached-base streak to a team-leading 13 games.
In his first appearance since April 2018, John Sherman struck out a career-best six batters Saturday, besting his previous career-high of four against Austin Peay on April 21, 2018.
In his first start of the season, Alex Garbrick turned in a career-long outing, tossing 7.0 innings to surpass his career's previous longest start of 6.1 innings against Murray State last May.
With three strikeouts in his lone inning of work Saturday, Donovan Baldocchi is the first Eagle since Brice Smallwood in 2011 to strikeout three batters in an inning in his Morehead State debut.
