Baseball wins slugfest over Evansville

Story by Gage Johnson, staff writer

Murray State baseball returned home following an 0-3 road trip to take on the Evansville Purple Aces at Johnny Reagan Field.

The Racers used a two-run double from freshman second baseman Grant Wood to take out their regional rival 11-9.

In a four hour and 11 minute game that included 13 pitching changes between the two teams, the Racers seemed to get off on the right foot. In freshman pitcher Braydon Cook’s first start of the season, he only gave up one earned run through three innings pitched. The one run coming on a sacrifice fly by the Aces for the first run of the ballgame.

Sophomore pitcher David Ellis was also succeeding for Evansville early on in his fifth start of the season, giving up one hit in two innings on the mound. However, Ellis was replaced to begin the bottom of the third inning by senior pitcher Hunter Porterfield. The offensive fireworks shown by both teams in the game began in the inning, when the Racers didn’t give Porterfield a warm welcome out of the bullpen.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs for Murray State to kick off the inning. After that, Evansville only had itself to blame. The Racers only drove in three of the seven runs they scored in the inning. The Aces hit the first batter of the inning, allowing a run to score. They then walked in three runs in the inning, giving Murray State a 7-1 lead going into the fourth.

While both teams managed to create more offense throughout the game, for the most part the Racers seemed to be in the driver’s seat — until Evansville turned the tides in the eighth inning.

The Aces loaded the bases with one out in the inning for freshman infielder Tanner Craig. A sacrifice fly from Craig made it a 9-7 Racer lead with two outs in the inning. After a pitching change to senior pitcher Tyler Anderson, Murray State committed back-to-back errors, allowing Evansville to tie the game at nine.

The Racers answered with a rally of their own in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs in the inning, Murray State managed to get runners on first and second with a single and a walk. Wood then doubled down the right field, scoring both runners and giving the Racers an 11-9 lead.

With the bases loaded and one out in the inning for the Aces, senior pitcher Caleb Hicks came in relief for Murray State. Hicks struckout the two ensuing batters with cutters on the outside corners, earning him his first save of the year to go along with the 11-9 Racer win.

The win gives Murray State a 15-14 overall record. Despite the victory, Moulder was less than impressed with how his team performed, as the Racers left 16 runners on base and had four errors in the ballgame.

“It was a great rivalry win, but to be honest I’m not happy with how we played,” Moulder said. “We didn’t play good baseball today. We just happened to have some nice individual performances, and they gave us a lot as well tonight.”

The Racers will now play in one more home game before hitting the road. Murray State will take on Harris-Stowe University at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 6, at Reagan Field.

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