Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
21-24, 7-11
SIU Edwardsville
22-22, 9-9
Breds Win 16-10 - Take OVC Series With Visiting SIUE
4/29/2012 5:11:00 PM | Baseball
The Murray State Thoroughbreds notched a 16-10 victory Sunday to take the weekend three-game series from SIU Edwardsville at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Ky.
MSU improved to 21-24 overall and 7-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while the Cougars fell to 22-22 and 9-9.
The eighth inning was good to the “Breds in the series. They scored 10 runs to come from behind in the first game 11-5 and today exploded for seven runs in the eighth to break open a 9-7 game.
“There is something about the eighth inning. We've had several games this season with a big eighth inning,” MSU head Coach Rob McDonald said. “We're working hard to score every inning, but the big crooked numbers are nice. You wish you could bottle it, but you can't, you just have to make it work when it happens.”
Ty Stetson started the big eighth inning with a lead-off double and after the first out was recorded, MSU hit the Cougars with five straight hits. The big shot was Brandon Elliott's third home run of the season. The 3-run home run gave MSU a 14-7 lead.
The 'Breds pounded SIUE for 18 hits in the game led by Brandon Eggenschwiler who was 4-5, while Mike Kozlowski went 3-5 and drove in five runs. On the day, MSU had four doubles, a pair of triples and one home run.
Bryan Babin worked five and a third innings to up his record to 4-3. He gave up four runs on seven hits.
With only nine games remaining in the OVC season, the 'Breds are fighting to make their way into the six-team post-season tournament and time is getting short.
“You can't really talk about sweeps or evening winning series,” McDonald said. “We're just trying to break it down to the point to winning each inning or the first three innings and the middle three innings. We had a good weekend, we had some guys perform and some guys that came in and played well.”
MSU's next challenge is a Wednesday 6:30 p.m. game at Mississippi before starting a three-game home series Friday with Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. at Reagan Field.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Babin, Bryan (4-3)
L: HAWKINS, Thad (2-4)
Batting:
2B: SIPE, Brian 1
HR: MATECKI, Mitch 1 ; GREATTING, Joel 1 ; CALDWELL, Devin 1
RBI: MATECKI, Mitch 2 ; GREATTING, Joel 1 ; CALDWELL, Devin 3 ; SWINNEN, Mike 1 ; GREEN, Chase 1 ; MONAGHAN, Michael 2
SF: SWINNEN, Mike 1
Base Running:
RUNS: BECHERER, Travis 1 ; MATECKI, Mitch 2 ; LOMBARDO, Nick 1 ; GREATTING, Joel 3 ; JOHNSON, Drew 1 ; CALDWELL, Devin 1 ; SIPE, Brian 1
Batting:
2B: Stetson, Ty 1 ; Wheeler, Dylan 1 ; Kozlowski, Mike 1 ; Zipko, Noah 1
3B: Stetson, Ty 1 ; Ritzheimer, Paul 1
HR: Elliott, Brandon 1
RBI: Stetson, Ty 2 ; Ritzheimer, Paul 1 ; Wheeler, Dylan 1 ; Kozlowski, Mike 5 ; Eggenschwiler, Brandon 2 ; Elliott, Brandon 3 ; Linton, Rick 2
SH: Wheeler, Dylan 1 ; Speed, Colton 1 ; Zipko, Noah 1
SF: Wheeler, Dylan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Stetson, Ty 2 ; Ritzheimer, Paul 2 ; Wheeler, Dylan 2 ; Kozlowski, Mike 2 ; Eggenschwiler, Brandon 2 ; Elliott, Brandon 2 ; Linton, Rick 2 ; Zipko, Noah 2
HBP: Stetson, Ty 1
