Murfreesboro, Tenn. – Last week was tough for Blue Raider baseball. They’ve dropped five games in a row and have a three-game set this weekend against a gritty Louisiana Tech team. MTSU's starter pitched well, but a slow day offensively hindered the Blue Raiders, who dropped their sixth consecutive game, this time to LA Tech 5-4.
“It was a competitive game all the way around; I feel like our guys did a good job against their lefty, and Colin [Kerrigan] did a nice job,” says MTSU head coach Jerry Meyers. “I think we did some things well in all three phases, but there’s no consolation for that. Coming up short is not what we’re looking for.”
Kerrigan tossed a scoreless frame in the top of the first despite allowing two runners to get into scoring position. Eston Snider led off the bottom of the inning with a single, but back-to-back outs brought Hayden Miller up to the plate. He would not get to swing as Snider was caught between first and second base, being tagged out to end the threat.
In the second inning, Kerrigan got help from his middle infielders Clay Badylak and Matt Wolfe, who made tremendous plays in collecting the first two outs. But Trey Hawsey made sure Middle didn’t get out of the inning unscathed after he blasted a solo home run off the “Lee Victory Wall” in left field, making it 1-0.
The Blue Raiders started to cook something up in the bottom of the third. Kenny McKinley singled to begin the frame, followed by Snider's one-out walk. Brett Vondohlen blooped a single into shallow right field to juice the bases, and big Tyler Minnick came up to the plate looking to do damage. However, he grounded into a double play to end the inning while stranding the bases loaded.
Keaton Ray laced a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth, and then Wolfe walked to put a pair of runners on. Badylak clutched up with a bloop double into left field to plate Ray and put two runners into scoring position. A wild pitch the next at-bat allowed Wolfe to stroll home, giving the Blue Raiders a 2-1 advantage.
But that lead was short-lived. In the top of the fifth inning, Hawsey mashed his second long ball of the game, a solo bomb, tying it at two runs apiece. Kerrigan collected three outs to end the frame and bring the MTSU bats back up.
Snider began the bottom half of the inning with an infield single to third base, his second base knock of the day, which gave him 200 career hits in his nearly four seasons at Middle.
“It’s very cool, and it’s an honor [to get 200 hits]. I don’t feel like I’ve been here that long and picked up that many hits, but it’s cool, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else,” Snider said.
The Bulldog bats struck again in the sixth inning, starting with a Sebastian Mexico one-out single. LA Tech recorded back-to-back hits, one a two-run double by Eli Berch to give them the lead again. Kerrigan was pulled for Will Jenkins, but Louisiana Tech would plate another run in the frame to extend the lead to 5-2.
Ray walked in the bottom of the inning but wouldn’t stay on base long as McKinley launched a two-run tank over the left-field wall to cut the lead to one run. Brett Rogers singled to keep the frame going, but Snider struck out to record the final out with the Bulldogs leading 5-4.
The Blue Raiders threatened in the bottom of the eighth after Badylak singled through the middle of the infield and Rogers drew a two-out walk.
Snider stood at the plate with a chance to tie things up for his team. He hit a hard grounder to first base, and it looked like an easy out. However, the first baseman bobbled the ball. Snider sprinted hard and dove at the first base bag but was too late as it was stepped on for the third out.
Middle Tennessee went to bat in the bottom of the ninth to try and tie or take the lead, but they went 1-2-3 on 11 pitches to end the game. As MT dropped its sixth consecutive ballgame, this time to Louisiana Tech by a score of 5-4.
“If we would have been able to play like we did tonight consistently, we probably would have won at least a few of those games, talking about the last week and a half,” Meyers says. “We’ve been trying almost to reinvent ourselves with guys out of the lineup. We must continue trying to do what we did tonight and then do whatever you need to do to win a one-run game.”
The Blue Raiders will return to the diamond tomorrow for the second game against the LA Tech Bulldogs. First pitch is at 4:05 p.m., and Drew Horn is the probable pitcher for MTSU.
