Lawrence Blast Leads Breds to 6-1 Victory

Thursday, May 15

Richmond, Ky.

5 p.m.

Murray State

22-28, 13-15

Eastern Kentucky

23-30, 11-17

Murray State

Eastern Kentucky

Cameron Finch allowed just one run over eight innings in the victory over EKU.

5/15/2014 8:13:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

| BOX SCORE (.pdf)

Murray State freshman Tyler Lawrence provided all the offense that would be needed with a three-run home run in the third inning to lead the Breds to a 6-1 victory over Eastern Kentucky in the first game of a three-game series Thursday evening at Turkey Hughes Field.

Anthony Bayus started the third-inning rally by delivering a leadoff single to left field. Kollin Dowdy put two on with a double off the fence in right center, and Lawrence hit the second pitch he saw deep over the left-field fence for his first career home run.

The Breds (22-28, 13-15 OVC) were not done in the inning as Luke Daugherty started the rally again with a one-out single off the glove of the pitcher. Dalton West put runners on the corners with a single to right center, and Matt McGowan plated Daugherty with a sacrifice bunt to the right side.

Cameron Finch (4-7) would make the lead stand up as he gave up just one run on six hits and seven strikeouts over eight-plus innings.

He ran into some trouble in the fifth inning by allowing a leadoff double. He nearly got out of the frame without any damage, but Luke Wurzelbacher snuck a ball just inside the third-base bag to plate the run.

Finch found himself looking at a second and third, one-out situation in the seventh, but got a strikeout and a popup to end the threat without any damage.

MSU added a pair of runs in the ninth with the aid of three Colonel errors. Taylor Mathews reached on a fielding error to start the inning. He then stole second, and took third on the throwing error. Ty Stetson drove in Mathews with a single through the left side against the drawn-in infield. A throwing error off the bat of Lawrence allowed Stetson to score with two outs.

EKU (23-30, 11-17 OVC) tried to rally in the ninth as they put the first two runners on, chasing Finch from the game. Cody Maerz stepped onto the mound and retired all three hitters he faced to end the game.

Tanner Perkins (3-9) took the loss after giving up four runs on nine hits over 7.1 innings.

Bayus led the Breds by going 3-for-5 with a run scored. Stetson and Dowdy each added two hits.

The two teams return to the diamond Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. MSU will send LHP Brock Downey (8-3, 2.74 ERA) to the mound, while EKU will counter with RHP Ben Gullo (2-1, 5.79 ERA).