MOREHEAD, Ky. – On a cold and rainy afternoon at Allen Field, the Morehead State baseball team played catch-up from the first inning on and were unable to erase an early 5-0 deficit, dropping the series opener 11-7 to Presbyterian. The Eagles (12-16, 4-2 OVC) battled back, cutting the Presbyterian lead to two runs on multiple occasions, but the Blue Hose answered every time and took a 1-0 series lead.
The visiting Blue Hose pushed across five runs in the first three innings Saturday, as Jay Wetherington scored on a sacrifice fly in the first before Dalton Reeves scored on an error in the second. Both of those runs were unearned against MSU's starter
Luke Helton (L, 1-4). In the third, a double from Jeremiah Boyd plated two more before a run scored on a double play to make the score 5-0 Blue Hose.
Morehead State chipped away at the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out rally.
Alex Jacobs reached on a walk and scored on a double from
Colton Becker before
Isaias Guzman smacked a no-doubt two-run homer to centerfield, cutting the deficit to two. Guzman's homer off Charlie McDaniel (W, 3-2) was his first of the season and first as an Eagle.
A scoreless fifth inning passed before Presbyterian got a run back on a Jack Gorman sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth. In the bottom half, a sacrifice fly from
Colton Becker plated
Alex Jacobs to make the score 6-4. Becker has an RBI in all four games of his current four game hit-streak, with seven total runs batted in during the streak.
In the seventh, Presbyterian plated four runs to give themselves a six-run advantage thanks to a pair of two-run doubles from Dalton Reeves and Jack Gorman. The ever-resilient Eagles got three back in the bottom half; however, as
Bryce Ray drew a walk and scored on a double from
Jackson Feltner before
Alex Jacobs smashed a two-run homer into right field to make the score 10-7. Jacobs (2-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R) extended both his on-base streak to 26 games and his hit-streak to 17 games, both season-long streaks for the Eagles.
A Chase Hughes solo shot made the score 11-7 in the eighth, and Logan Ymker came on and got the last six outs for Presbyterian to secure the victory.
Morehead State will look to keep their streak of eight straight home series wins alive tomorrow, as the two teams will play two seven inning games Sunday to close out the series. There is no video broadcast, but live stats will be available. The first pitch of game one is set for 11:00 a.m. ET, with the second game starting approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first contest.
