Senior Connor Pauly went 3-for-4 with a home run, but the Morehead Sate baseball team couldn't contain visiting West Virginia Tuesday afternoon in the first of two mid-week matchups. The Mountaineers bested MSU 9-3.
"I am very disappointed with our performance today. We did nothing to control their running game or make any adjustments at the plate," said head coach Mike McGuire. (WVU starter Nick) Snyder has a good arm for them, but today was a walk in the park for him and that's on us. We can talk about going to a regional and so forth as a program but you do not get there with a performance like today."
Snyder fanned 10 Eagle hitters in a six-inning assignment before giving way to Beau Lowery, who whiffed three more and picked up a save.
Pauly was the bright spot, getting a trio of hits, including a seventh-inning solo homer. The Eagles also scored on senior Trevor Snyder's RBI single in the third. But, the Eagles trailed 5-0 at that point. MSU added its second run on a ground-out double play with the bases loaded in the fifth.
The Mountaineers hammered three home runs - all to right or right-center field. Two of the three round-trippers accounted for five of the WVU runs.
Eagle starter Alex Garbrick, one of six MSU pitchers to appear, was tagged with the loss after allowing a first-inning three-run round tripper. The other five, plus Garbrick, did total eight strikeouts of WVU batters.
Stephen Hill, Snyder and pinch hitter Brody Shoupe registered the other three hits for MSU.
The teams will wrap up the mid-week series on Wednesday.
