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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- A two-run double in the seventh by senior
Luke Bainer capped a late-inning rally that carried the Morehead State baseball team to a 3-2 win over Jacksonville State Saturday at Allen Field.
"This was an important win," said Head Coach Jay Sorg. "Noah did a tremendous job keeping us in the game. It showed a lot of character from our offense to answer their two-run seventh with three runs of our own, especially when we had struggled at the plate to that point."
Starters Daniel Watt and
Noah Smallwood carried a pitcher’s duel into the late innings, before Erik Underwood’s seventh-inning round-tripper ended the offensive monotony. Right fielder Kyle Bluestein singled to begin the frame and came home on the Underwood long ball.
Both starters combined for six scoreless innings. Watt held the Eagles (15-12, 3-2 OVC) off the board until the bottom half of the seventh. MSU recorded three consecutive one-out hits to load the bases and force JSU (9-17, 3-2 OVC) to dip into the bullpen. The third base knock came off Gamecock closer Todd Hornsby. The Eagles plated their first run on a sacrifice fly by outfielder
Nick Duff and took the lead after the two-run double by right fielder
Luke Bainer.
Smallwood tossed seven innings, allowed five hits, two runs and earned his second win of the season. He was replaced by Eagle closer and Ohio Valley Conference saves leader
Matt Duncan in the eighth. Duncan pitched two scoreless frames and fanned the final two JSU batters en route to his eighth save.
Two Eagles recorded multi-hit games. Senior
Andrew Deeds and catcher
Eric Bainer both rapped a pair of singles in the contest.
Hornsby suffered the loss. He tossed 1.2 innings, allowed three hits and the go-ahead run. He entered the day tied for second in the OVC with six saves.
MSU returns to action tomorrow against the Gamecocks at Allen Field in the series finale beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
