MOREHEAD, Ky. – Morehead State will return to Ohio Valley Conference action this weekend when it travels to Nashville for a three-game series with Belmont. The two teams will meet on Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. ET and then conclude with a single contest on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. All three matchups will take place at E.S. Rose Park.

Game one will be broadcast on ESPN+ at the link: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/1e61de91-bb5d-42f6-934c-0b1e25c78c6a?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults. Game two can be viewed at the link: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/968df6a5-c21e-4e9a-9454-ed2f7d67da9d?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults, with game three available at the link: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/43955343-69e7-4642-989b-903c78503e7c?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults.

Live stats are also available for each game. Follow the first contest at the link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=386161. Game two can be followed through the link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=386169, with game three available via the link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=386162.

Morehead State (5-28/4-12) will be playing the second, third and fourth contests of a six-game road swing. The Eagles are coming off a 9-1, five-inning defeat at Marshall on Wednesday. The Blue and Gold have dropped their last 27 road outings, including all 22 this year. In total, MSU is 0-11 in true road matches. The last victory away from home came on April 17, 2021, with a 3-1 win over UT Martin in Martin, Tenn.

The Eagles are batting .213 as a team, with junior outfielder Madeline Gailor leading the way. She is hitting .323, with team highs in hits (21), doubles (five), RBI (16), slugging percentage (.400), on-base percentage (.380) and stolen bases (nine). She also enters the weekend having reached base in 13 of her last 14 games.

Junior infielder Kirya Kingery follows Gailor in most categories. She is hitting .270, has scored 10 runs, with 17 hits, a .349 slugging percentage, has been hit by a pitch six times and has a .361 on-base percentage. She also owns a streak of reaching base in 13 of her last 15 games.

Two Eagles remain among the national leaders. Senior infielder Peyton Rose has been hit by a pitch 13 times in 32 contests for a 0.41 per-game average, which is fourth best nationally. Senior catcher/infielder Peyton Slater is tied for fifth in Division I having thrown out 14 runners attempting to steal over a span of 33 games.

Sophomore infielder Peyton Jordan and sophomore pitcher Lennon Spicer both earned votes in the conference's Player and Pitcher of the Week balloting, respectively, on Monday for their performance last weekend in the sweep of SIU-Edwardsville.

Spicer enters the series as the anchor of the Eagle staff. She has a 4-14 record, a 5.11 ERA, with 67 strikeouts and 42 walks in 97.1 innings. Freshman pitcher Madi Ogden is next with a 1-8 mark, a 5.19 ERA, with 34 strikeouts and 40 walks in 59.1 innings.

Belmont (23-11/13-4) sits in second place in the OVC standings. It has been quite a successful season for second-year head coach Laura Matthews, whose team was picked eighth in the preseason rankings.

The Bruins have won their last four outings, most recently defeating Middle Tennessee State 4-0 Wednesday on the road. Prior to that, BU swept a weekend series at Tennessee Tech 5-1 (in eight innings), 13-4 (in five innings) and 14-5 (in five innings). On the season, the team is 9-2 at home. In its most recent contests at E.S. Rose Park, it went 1-2 on April 9-10 against Murray State, including falling to the Racers 7-2 in the last outing.

Belmont ranks fifth nationally with 2.41 stolen bases per game. BU leads the OVC in batting average (.320), scoring (6.18 runs per game), on-base percentage (.398) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.10). The team also has hit 23 home runs, has a staff ERA of 3.33 and has a fielding percentage of .962.

Senior center fielder Cheyenne Cavanaugh leads the Bruins with a .423 batting average. She adds six doubles, two homers, 19 RBI, 15 walks and 26 stolen bases (ranking ninth in Division I with 0.76 per game). Junior second baseman Kristen Green is hitting .379, with six doubles, seven homers and a team-high 34 RBI. Freshman outfielder Baie Ensio follows with a .340 batting average and 11 RBI. Senior shortstop Ellison Ollinger contributes a .333 average, with 12 extra-base hits and 21 RBI.

Sophomore Emma Summers is the team's ace. She owns a 9-6 record, a 2.02 ERA, with 87 strikeouts to 12 walks in 93.2 innings. Senior Alicia Veltri has pitched the next most innings at 51.2 and is 5-4, with a 5.69 ERA, along with 26 strikeouts and 20 walks. Sophomore Alex Clesi rounds out the regulars with a 5-1 record, a 4.05 ERA, 30 strikeouts and 13 walks.

"They have a bench full of staff members when it comes to pitching. They do a good job of putting the ball in to play and they run the bases well," MSU coach Samantha Jones said. "So, we can expect them to get on base and run. So, we need to do a good job of stopping them, containing them and playing our ball when it comes to our offensive game."

Belmont is one of the teams against which Morehead State has had the most success. The Eagles hold a 14-9 advantage in the series, including a 6-3 mark on the road.

The two teams first met in 2004. They played four straight years, then took five years off, before resuming the series in 2013. Since that point, MSU holds a 12-5 edge. However, BU has won four of the last six.

The Eagles and Bruins did not face each other in either 2020 or 2021. In the 2019 meetings, Belmont claimed victories of 10-0 in five innings and 12-3 in six innings on April 6 in Morehead. MSU's last win was a 3-0 decision at Belmont on April 13, 2018. It also was the last time the two faced each other in Nashville. Earlier that day, the Bruins won 3-2. The Eagles also swept all three meetings at Belmont in 2016.

Coach Jones is 0-2 in games against BU.

Morehead State will conclude its six-game road swing with a pair of contests at Tennessee Tech on Wednesday, Apr. 27. The doubleheader will begin at 4 p.m. The Eagles return home on Saturday, Apr. 30 to begin a seven-game home stand, their final outings at the University Field this season.