MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Designated hitter Aubrey Kearns got the Morehead State baseball team on the board early with a home run, right fielder Ian McCubbin cleared the bases later with a three-run double, while starter Callum McGill pitched three shutout innings and Cole Wells came on for his first career save as the Eagles earned a series-opening win at Tennessee Tech's Averitt Express Baseball Complex Thursday night, 7-4.

Morehead State (29-23/13-12 OVC) has won 11 of its last 13 games, while the Eagle triumph eliminated the Golden Eagles (18-35/6-19 OVC) from any hope of making the conference tournament.

The Eagles wasted little time in taking a lead as Kearns connected on his 12th long ball of the year off Tech starter Carter Casabella in the first inning. He sent a pitch over the wall in right field.

MSU blew the game open with five runs in the third frame. Second baseman drew a walk to lead off. Left fielder JJ Dutton singled to put two runners on. After center-fielder Davis Germann moved the runners over on a ground out, third baseman Griffin Olson plated Griffith on a single to the pitcher. Kearns coaxed a walk before McCubbin clobbered a Casabella (2-6) offering off the wall in deep center to cleat the bases for a 5-0 lead on a double. First baseman Alex Kean pushed the advantage to 6-0 later on a run-scoring single to plate McCubbin.

The visitors made it 7-0 in the sixth stanza when McCubbin walked and later scored on shortstop Jaden Correa's single into shallow right field.

Tech made the ending interesting though, as the home team was able to muster a run in the seventh and three in the eighth off Eagle reliever Devin Costa. Wells came out for the ninth and appeared to coax a ground ball to third for the first out, but the throw was dropped for an error. After two more outs, Tech loaded the bases before Wells sealed the win on a fly out to left field.

Kean led the Eagles at the plate, going 3-for-4, while six additional batters garnered a hit a apiece.

McGill, on a pitch count to get ready for the upcoming OVC Tournament starting next Tuesday, tossed the first three innings and didn't allow a run on just three hits to improve to 3-0. Ethan Davis chewed up the middle 3.2 frames with a solid effort. He only gave up two hits and one run. Costa pitched 1.1 frames to give way to Wells.

Jackson Rooker and Tyler Bennett each rapped two hits apiece for the Golden Eagles.

The teams return to the Averitt Express Complex on Friday night for another 7 p.m. ET game.

NOTABLE
* Kearns is now the third Eagle with 12 homers this season, joining Correa and catcher Caden Sheridan. 
* Germann walked once, extending his reached-base streak to 14 games. He was 0-for-4 though, ending a hit streak at six games.
* Kearns now has 15 multi-run games, one shy of team leader Germann.
* McCubbin upped his team-best multi-RBI games to 17 this spring.
* Kean's three hits gave him 12 multi-hit games now this season.
* The win, coupled with an 8-4 loss for Lindenwood at Southern Indiana, lifted the Eagles into fifth place in the OVC race.