‘Breds host Golden Eagles

   Attempting to win their fourth straight Ohio Valley Conference series, the Murray State Thoroughbreds return home to Reagan Field for a three-game set against the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech tomorrow and Sunday.
    “Every week we try to focus as much as we can on ourselves,” Head Coach Rob McDonald said. “We feel like if we play well, we’ll have good results. We try not to be that overly concerned with the other team. We go out and control what we have control over, which is our own team and our own performance.”
    The Golden Eagles (22-18, 7-9) have won four of their last six contests and are No. 6 in the OVC heading into their weekend series with the ‘Breds.
    Tennessee Tech is led offensively by two underclassmen, sophomores Chad Oberacker and A.J. Kirby-Jones. Oberacker, a left-handed pitcher/outfielder, leads the team with a .354 batting average, while Kirby-Jones, a first baseman/designated hitter, leads Tennessee Tech with 13 home runs and 49 runs batted in. Kirby-Jones’ slugging percentage is at the top of the team at .583 percent, as is his on base percentage, sitting at .446 percent.
    The ‘Breds (26-26, 8-6) are No. 4 in the OVC. They are returning home after a four-game road trip that sent them to Morehead State University for a three-game series, and to Nashville, Tenn. for a one-game showdown with Belmont University.
    With Wednesday’s victory at Belmont, the ‘Breds have won six of their last seven games, after taking two of three from Morehead State this past weekend.
    “You go into every series hoping to win, and we’ve been able to do that for three weeks in a row,” McDonald said. “I feel like the guys are playing well and with confidence. We hope to continue to play well on weekends and finish the season strong.”
    In the series opener against Morehead State (15-25, 8-9), sophomore outfielder Elliot Frey stole the show. He set a school record, going 6-for-6 from the plate, with a double, a home run and three runs batted in, en route to Murray State’s 13-8 victory. 
    Junior catcher Jason Laws also had a good day offensively going 2-for-4 with a triple, a home run and a career-high six runs batted in. 
    Junior right-hander Chris Craycraft (7-2) picked up the victory, giving up eight runs on 10 hits and seven strikeouts in seven innings.  Craycraft allowed only one hit and didn’t give up any runs over the final four innings. 
    In the second game, the ‘Breds won in comeback fashion, scoring six runs in the top of the seventh inning on their way to a 9-4 victory. 
    Freshman infielder Jonathan Craycraft collected three hits in the ballgame, while Laws and junior outfielder Daniel Hill each had two.  Hill hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season in the top of the sixth inning. 
    Junior left-hander Daniel Calhoun (9-1) picked up his ninth win of the season, allowing four runs, two of which were earned on nine hits.  Calhoun had four strikeouts in his seventh complete game of the season and remains just one win off the national lead held by Kansas State’s A.J. Morris and Arizona State’s Mike Leake, who both have 10 wins.
    The ‘Breds dropped the series finale 18-9, when the Eagles opened up with five runs in the first inning.      Murray State was able to regain a short-lived lead in the top of the fourth inning, but the Eagles regained the lead in the fifth inning and took full control in the seventh. 
    Junior right-handed pitcher Marc Harmon (2-2) took the loss for the ‘Breds, after allowing nine runs, five earned, on six hits in five innings.
    On Wednesday, the ‘Breds traveled to Nashville for a one-game face-off with the Belmont University Bruins.
    In the 12-3 victory, the ‘Breds squared off the season series after falling 4-3 at home to the Bruins on  April 15.
    “The team played real well and got out to a great start with good hitting,” McDonald said. “The whole evening we continued to play well and increased the lead gradually. We got a few runs in most of the innings and our pitching kept (Belmont) down.”
    In his first start at Murray State, junior right-handed pitcher Seth McFarlin got the win, giving up only one run on three hits in his three innings on the mound.
    Junior first baseman/designated hitter Wes Cunningham tallied three RBIs while sophmore outfielders Zach Noonan and Frey combined for a total of six hits and four runs.
    Senior third baseman Tyler Owen recorded the school’s second inside-the-park home run against Belmont in the two seasons Murray State has played the Bruins.
    Murray State will play a double-header tomorrow, with the first game starting at 1 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. tilt.  The series finale will start at 1 p.m. on Sunday. 
    Ricky Martin can be reached at richard.martin@murraystate.edu.