BOX SCORE
MOREHEAD, Ky. – Behind the long ball, Morehead State overpowered Southern Illinois en route to an 11-7 victory Saturday, evening the teams' series at a game apiece. The Eagles (4-5) benefit from a pair of home runs in a five-run eighth inning to put away the Salukis (6-5) in a back-and-forth affair at Allen Field.
Morehead State tallied three total home runs in the game as sophomore pinch hitter
Zach Boyd and senior rightfielder
Arthur Sells collected their second homers of the season while redshirt junior shortstop
Logan Goodnight connected on the first home run of his Morehead State career.
Overall, the Eagles collected their 11 runs on a season-high 13 hits, including a pair of career-high three-hit games for both Goodnight and Sells. On the other side, the Salukis plated their seven runs on 11 total hits.
The two teams return to action tomorrow afternoon for the series' rubber match as first pitch is slated for 1 p.m. ET.
HOW IT HAPPENED
T1: Southern Illinois opened the game's scoring as leadoff man Ian Walters ambushed the first pitch of the game, homering to right-centerfield before the Salukis took advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batsman to score two additional runs on a pair of doubles from first baseman Philip Archer and designated hitter Kyle O'Brien.
B1: A walk and a pair of singles—all with one out—from senior centerfielder Ryan Layne, Goodnight, redshirt junior third baseman Stephen Hill, respectively, loaded the bases for Morehead State in the first as senior first baseman Dom Peroni brought home the Eagles' first run, drawing a bases-loaded walk. Sells tacked on two more runs to the scoreboard, driving a ball off the wall in right-center to tie the game at three. Morehead State took the lead as Peroni scampered home following a wild pitch from Southern Illinois starting pitcher Brad Harrison.
T5: Opening the inning with a leadoff triple into the rightfield corner, Saluki shortstop Nick Neville raced home on a wild pitch, tying things at four before a double into the leftfield corner from centerfielder Addison Fugitt plated a go-ahead run for Southern Illinois, scoring Archer who double earlier in the frame.
B6: For the second consecutive game, Sells rounded the bases in the sixth inning, homering for the second straight afternoon, this time to right-center to knot the game at five runs apiece.
T7: Southern Illinois grabbed its final lead of the game as a double from pinch hitter Lucas Danielewicz brought home Archer—who reached with a triple to center—from third.
B7: Doubling on a ball inside-outed inside the first base bag and down the rightfield line and advancing further into scoring position on a passed ball, redshirt sophomore second baseman Bryce Hensor scored on a single to center off from Layne to tie the game for the final time.
B8: Stepping to the plate with two on (redshirt junior catcher Brody Shoup who reached with a walk and Hensor who was hit by a pitch) and two-out, sophomore Zach Boyd clubbed a 1-1 pitch over the wall in rightfield for a go-ahead three-run home run to give the Eagles the lead for good. Goodnight tucked away the victory, delivering a two-run homer to right to extend the Eagle lead.
T9: Southern Illinois tallied one final run scoring on a sacrifice fly from Archer which scored Saluki leftfield J.T. Weber from third after he reached on an error.
NOTABLE
Zach Boyd's three-run, two-out, pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning Saturday marks the first pinch-hit homer for an Eagle since Chase Sortor connected for a pinch-hit bomb on April 2, 2019.
Homering in back-to-back games, Arthur Sells is the first Eagle since teammate Dom Peroni to home in consecutive games since Peroni did so against Southeast Missouri on May 17-18, 2019.
With nine strikeouts across five innings, Morehead State starting pitcher Alex Garbrick equaled his season-high strikeout total, matching his total from his season-opening start against Michigan State.
Recording a season-high 15 total punchouts—nine from Garbrick and four and two, respectively, from relievers John Bakke and Jake Ziegelmeyer—Morehead State registered a seventh double-figure strikeout effort on the season, doing so in nine total games.
Tossing 3.0 innings of relief Saturday, Bakke is the first Morehead State reliever to pitch three consecutive outings of 3.0 or more innings since David Looney did so against Alabama State (3.0; 3/19), Southern Illinois (3.1; 3/24), and Ohio (4.0; 4/2) during the 2019 season.
