It took until the eighth inning Tuesday, but the Morehead State baseball team's offense came through and backed up what turned into a masterful pitching performance as the Eagles rallied to defeat the host Ohio Bobcats 3-1 at Bob Wren Stadium.
Three Eagle pitchers held the Bobcats to no earned runs, and sophomore right-fielder Niko Hulsizer erased a 1-0 deficit in the eighth with a two-out, two-run homer well over the wall in left field to move MSU's record to 14-6 overall. The Eagles have now won nine of their last 10. Ohio fell to 11-8.
"I can't say enough about our pitching lately," said head coach Mike McGuire. "We held them without an earned run, and I thought (senior right-hander) Luke (Humphreys) gave us a great start. We struggled a bit at the plate, some guys I thought hit it well, but we couldn't get timely hitting until late. Niko just missed what I thought would have been a home run early in the game and popped it up, but then he got a good pitch and hit a no-doubter."
Hulsizer's blast was his team-leading fifth round-tripper, and he now has five multiple-RBI games.
On the mound, Humphreys tossed the first five, striking out three, and allowing six hits. He only saw the one run scored in the fourth when the Eagles committed two errors and were charged with not finishing a second-to-first double play.
Freshman righty Alex Garbrick tossed the sixth and seventh frames without allowing a hit as he improved to 2-0. Junior right-hander David Calderon punched out three batters and surrendered just one hit in the final pair of frames for his third save. The Eagle bullpen now has 13.1 straight innings in the last four games with no runs allowed.
Sophomore Trevor Snyder added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth.
Junior second baseman Braxton Morris had his 10th multi-hit game, going 3-for-4. Hulsizer and junior third baseman Eli Boggess had two hits apiece as the Eagles are now 10-1 in 2017 when they get 10-plus hits.
Morehead State open an Ohio Valley Conference series with rival Eastern Kentucky on Friday at 3 p.m. at home. All fans will be treated to $1 hot dogs all throughout the game.
