Freshman Reid Leonard's single in the bottom of the 12th inning brought home pinch runner Jake Hammon, and the Morehead State baseball team survived two rain delays and more than eight hours of action Wednesday night to defeat Tennessee Tech 3-2 in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
Morehead State (32-25) brought its win total to 70 in the last two seasons and won for the second straight season in extra innings versus Tech in the league tournament. TTU fell to 31-23. MSU will play either second-seeded Jacksonville State at 4 p.m. ET Thursday or top-seed Southeast Missouri at 8 p.m.
"A great college baseball game," said head coach Mike McGuire. "It was one of those games where neither team really deserved to lose. Both teams had phenomenal pitching, and we were just finally able to break through after having quite a few poor at-bats throughout the game. I thought the rain delay in the seventh was really to our advantage. We got out of the inning right before that, and I knew they had to change pitchers. Their guy (Roberts) threw great. We kind of used a lot of the bullets in our bullpen, so for us to pull off the win was key for our pitchers for the rest of the week."
Tech pitcher Travis Moths got a strikeout to start the 12th before hitting pinch-hitter Jimmy Wright. After another punchout, Moths uncorked a wild pitch to send Wright to second. Hammon pinch ran, and Leonard, who finished 2-for-6, nailed a 3-2 pitch down the left field line to set off the victory celebration.
Tech had runners on second and third with just one out in the top of the 12th, but first baseman Tyler Niemann nabbed a scorching line drive off the bat of Jake Farr.
The Eagles' chances looked grim until the eighth inning, after a three-and-a-half hour rain delay. But, sophomore second baseman Braxton Morris crushed a towering two-run homer to left field to tie the game 2-2.
Tennessee Tech scored its runs in the sixth and eighth frames. Trevor Putzig recorded a sac fly in the sixth, and Chris Brown cranked a solo homer off reliever Cable Wright in the eighth.
Both teams' pitching staffs combined for 26 strikeouts, with MSU starter Matt Anderson sitting down six. Senior Patrick McGuff, who only faced OVC Player of the Year Kevin Strohschein in the 12th and got him to ground out, was credited with the win to improve to 5-3. Cable Wright struck out three after coming back to pitch after the delay, and closer Tyler Keele whiffed three TTU hitters in two frames.
Moths (2-3) took the loss, despite striking out four in 2.2 innings.
