The Morehead State baseball team was held off the scoreboard Friday and bowed out of the 2016 OVC Tournament with a 3-0 setback to top-seeded Southeast Missouri in the afternoon and an 8-0 decision to sixth-seeded Belmont in the nightcap.
The Eagles end their season at 32-27, but despite the losses, the program still finished with 70 wins in the last two seasons.
"We had a few calls go against us at the end of the first game, and then at the beginning of the second game, and I think it kind of deflated us. We don't know what would have happened, but it was still disappointing. I am still proud of our seniors. They are great players and even better guys off the field. They will all be successful in what they do. Some will have a chance to play beyond Morehead State and others will be successful in their careers. Especially the three guys who have been with me for four years (Matt Anderson, Tyler Keele and Craig Pearcy), they won more games in a three-year span than anybody in program history, and all the seniors won more games in the last two years than any player has in the past in two seasons."
The 2016 pitching staff also shattered the Ohio Valley Conference record and MSU single-season mark for strikeouts by nearly 100 more than the previous mark, fanning 554.
In the SEMO game, the Eagles got seven hits off OVC Pitcher of the Year Joey Lucchesi, including a double by freshman leftfielder Niko Hulsizer. The Redhawks scored once in the first on a ground out and got two RBI singles in the fourth frame.
Senior pitcher Patrick McGuff tossed 4.1 scoreless innings in relief of starter Aaron Leasher (5-4), and he sat down seven on strikeouts and only gave up one hit.
The Eagles fell behind the eight-ball early in the Belmont game and never got the offense going. The Bruins scored twice in the first inning on Luke Humphreys' (5-5) wild pitches and then later tacked on a pair of two-run homers in the fifth and eighth frames.
MSU was limited to seven hits by Belmont's Dylan King. Freshman shortstop Reid Leonard had two hits.
Besides Anderson, Keele, Pearcy and McGuff, the program sees pitcher Matt Ellenbest, infielder Jesus Carrera and pitcher Jared Holloman depart. All the regular field players are slated to return.
