BOX SCORES (GAME ONE | GAME TWO)
NORFOLK, Va. – Facing a doubleheader for the second consecutive weekend, Morehead State baseball walked away with a sweep of Saturday's twin bill, taking both games from host Norfolk State by scores of 5-4 and 9-6.
The pair of victories improved the Eagles to 2-4 on the season while dropping the Spartans to 2-4. Across the two games, Morehead State hitters collected 17 total hits while Morehead State pitching combined for 24 total strikeouts.
Morehead State and Norfolk State wrap their series tomorrow afternoon with a single contest slated for a 12 p.m. ET first pitch.
HOW IT HAPPENED
GAME ONE (MOREHEAD STATE 5, NORFOLK STATE 4)
T1: Drawing a two-out walk, junior shortstop
Logan Goodnight made his way into scoring position, taking advantage of two consecutive wild pitches from Norfolk State starting pitcher Alex Wright before redshirt junior third baseman
Stephen Hill slammed a 2-2 pitch into the left-center gap, bringing home Goodnight from third.
T3: With one out and following back-to-back walks to juniors, rightfielder
Peyton Dillingham and catcher
Jack Gardner, sophomore leftfielder
Zach Boyd deposited the first pitch he saw from Wright onto the street beyond the rightfield wall to expand the Eagles lead to 4-0.
B5: Thanks to five hits in the frame including two double, Norfolk State fought back to tie the game at four apiece as catcher Ty Hanchey, second baseman Alsander Womack, and first baseman Stephen Baughn each collected RBI in the inning.
T7: Earning his way on with a walk, Boyd promptly stole second to put a runner in scoring position for the top of the order and leadoff man, redshirt sophomore second baseman
Bryce Hensor. Hensor preceded to take an 0-1 pitch over the head of the second baseman and into the right-center gap, scoring Boyd from second to give Morehead State the lead.
GAME TWO (MOREHEAD STATE 9, NORFOLK STATE 6)
T2: Opening the frame with a walk, a passed ball and sacrifice bunt moved Hill to third base with one-out before Dillingham lifted a ball into leftfield as Hill raced to the plate for the game's first run.
B2: Taking advantage of two Morehead State errors in the inning, Norfolk State captures their first lead of the afternoon as three runs score.
T4: The Eagles answered in the fourth as the bottom four members of the team's batting order drove home runs in the inning as Dillingham, senior designated hitter
Arthur Sells, redshirt freshman leftfielder
Bryce Ray, and redshirt junior catcher
Brody Shoupe each drove in a run.
T5: With senior centerfielder
Ryan Layne working a lead-off walk, Goodnight single back through the middle as a caroming ball of the glove of the Spartan centerfielder permitted Layne to score from first base.
B5: A walk and wild pitch moved Hanchey into scoring position as an RBI single to right-center by Womack drove in the run.
T6: Leading off the inning with back-to-back singles, Dillingham and Sells advanced into scoring position following a sacrifice bunt by Ray. Layne would drive home two with a shallow single into centerfield with the bases loaded to expand the Eagle lead.
T7: Nestling a ball next to the line in the rightfield corner, Morehead State first baseman
Dom Peroni scored
Stephen Hill—who walked to start the inning—from first base, furthering the Eagle advantage.
B8: With two men on and two down, Norfolk State rightfielder Caleb Ward drove in two with a ball into the right-center gap before being gunned down at third as Layne recorded his second outfield assist of the season.
NOTABLE
With the first of two wins on Saturday, Morehead State head coach Mik Aoki recorded his 450th career Division I coaching victory, having now recorded 451 career wins in his 19-year D1 head coach career.
Striking out 13 and 11 batters respectively in both ends of Saturday's twin bill, Morehead State pitching has recorded 10 or more punchouts in five consecutive games for the first time since stringing together five such outings from February 21-28, 2015.
Closing the door on both of the Eagles' victories Saturday, senior closer Jake Ziegelmeyer recorded the 11th and 12th saves of his career, surpassing Glen Koger for fifth all-time and moving into a tie with Tyler Keele for fourth on the program's all-time saves list.
Recording a save in back-to-back games, Ziegelmeyer becomes the first to record a save in back-to-back games since he accomplished the feat against SIUE in a doubleheader on April 6, 2019.
In a game that saw him tie his longest career outing (3.1 innings), redshirt sophomore John Bakke earned his first career victory while also striking out a career-high six batters.
Boyd's second-inning home run in game one of Saturday's doubleheader marked the first of his Eagle career while his three RBI secured his third career multi-RBI game.
Striking both of the first two batters, he faced Saturday, redshirt junior reliever Donovan Baldocchi opened his Morehead State career by striking out each of the first five batters he faced.
