Longball Leads Racers to 8-6 Victory

Friday, May 13

Richmond, Ky.

6 p.m.

Murray State

24-26, 12-13

Eastern Kentucky

23-27, 12-13

Murray State

Eastern Kentucky

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

5/13/2016 9:55:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Murray State hit a trio of home runs and scored six of its eight runs via the longball as the Racers opened their series at Eastern Kentucky with an 8-6 win Friday night at Hughes Field in Richmond, Ky. Two of the three homers came with runners on base.

The Colonels (23-27, 12-13 OVC) opened the contest with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second to take an early 2-0 lead. In the second, MSU (24-26, 12-13 OVC) went to work offensively as Caleb Hicks and Kipp Moore opened the inning with back-to-back hits. Jack Hranec followed that with a three-run bomb to right center, his second homer of the season to give the Racers their first lead of the contest.

Moore would lengthen the MSU lead in the fourth as he led off the inning with a solo blast to right field, his fourth of the season. Moore has hit a homer in three of the last four games for the Racers. However, EKU would claw its way back out front with a three-run bottom of the fourth and took a 5-4 lead.

Ramsey Scott delivered the next three RBIs for the Racers as he tied the game at 5-5 with a single to right field that scored Adam Bauer and then in the seventh, he belted his 13^th home run of the year, this one a two-run shot which broke the tie and put MSU up 7-5. The Colonels cut the Racer lead to 7-6 with a run in the bottom half of the frame before a Tyler Lawrence infield single in the eighth put MSU back up by two, 8-6.

Tyler Anderson was able to close the door in the ninth for his first save of the season. Anderson was great out of the bullpen for MSU as he pitched 2.2 scoreless innings and gave up just one hit while striking out two batters. Ryan Dills got the start and the win on the mound for the Racers, improving his mark to 4-3 on the season. Dills pitched six innings and allowed five runs while fanning three.

Four Racers had multi-hit games in the win as Moore and Hranec each led the way with three hits. Moore went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs while Hranec was 3-of-5. Lawrence and Scott went 2-for-4 and 2-for-5, respectively on the night and each scored a run.

Game two of the series is Saturday and has been moved up to a 4 p.m., first pitch. Saturday's contest was originally scheduled for 6 p.m., central time but has been moved up due to cold temperatures Saturday evening.