Senior right fielder Brandon Rawehomered twice, including a grand slam, and the Morehead State baseball offense produced its second straight 20-hit game as the Eagles defeated East Tennessee State 16-9 at Thomas Field Tuesday night.
Morehead State improved to 14-13 overall, 8-7 on the road and evened the two-game season series with the Buccaneers, who slipped to 12-15 overall. The Eagles had 23 hits last Sunday vs. Eastern Kentucky and had 20 tonight, marking the first back-to-back 20-hit outbursts since a doubleheader on April 17, 2010.
In the last four games, the Eagles have generated 56 runs and 78 hits, including 17 doubles.
"We had another great night offensively, but I thought we did the little things at the plate that led to success tonight," Head Coach Mike McGuire said. "We got good situational hitting, and that led to some big innings."
The Eagles scored in six of the nine innings and had multi-run tallies in four. Morehead State took a 2-0 lead after three at-bats, but a pair of ETSU round-trippers staked the hosts to a 3-2 lead heading to the fourth. MSU plated eighth runs via five hits and three Buccaneer errors in the fourth.
MSU also scored twice in the fifth, seventh and eighth stanzas.
Rawe finished 4-for-5 with five RBI and scored four times. He raised his batting average to .342 after being below .200 earlier this month. He extended his hitting streak to a team-high eight games, and has base hits in 17 of his last 18 outings.
Five additional players had multi-hit days, including four with three base knocks apiece. Sophomore center fielder Ryan Kent, senior designated hitter Chris Robinson and senior left fielder Nick Newell were 3-for-6, while senior shortstop Robby Spencer went 3-for-5. Senior first baseman Kane Sweeney had a pair of hits.
The top four in the lineup, Kent, Sweeney, Rawe and Robinson have combined for 46 hits in the last four contests and are hitting .528 in that span.
Freshman right-hander Brent Stoneking was credited with his first career victory, tossing 3.2 innings and allowing four runs. Junior Patrick McGuff started on the hill but left in the fifth with an injury after giving up just three hits.
"We gave up nine runs, but I thought we pitched it pretty solidly today," McGuire said.
ETSU had a pair of three-run innings, in the third and fifth.
Ryan Simpler fell to 1-3 with the loss. He surrendered seven runs in three innings of work before giving way to five other relievers. Jordan Sanford entered in the fourth as a pinch hitter, stayed in the game at shortstop, and led the hosts with a 3-for-3 effort in the batter's box.
Morehead State is scheduled to host non-conference foe LaSalle from the Atlantic 10 Conference this weekend. Friday is set for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. ET.
