Mighty fine, streak at nine; Golden Eagles sweep Govs, 10-2
The Golden Eagle baseball team ran its OVC winning streak to nine games Sunday by completing a three-game series sweep over Austin Peay with a 10-2 victory. Ben Burgess drove in three runs while starter Tristan Archer got the win and Chason Choate earned a save.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech baseball team
extended its Ohio Valley Conference winning streak to nine games
Sunday, completing a three-game series sweep over Austin Peay with
a 10-2 victory in Bush Stadium.
Catcher Ben Burgess belted his third home run of the season and
drove in three runs to lead Tech's offensive charge. Starter
Tristan Archer (3-1) worked five strong innings to earn the win
while Chason Choate notched his first save of the year with four
innings of two-hit work in relief. The pair stranded nine APSU
runners.
The win propelled the Golden Eagles (23-21) into second place in
the OVC standings with a 9-5 league record with six OVC games
remaining in the regular season. Tech plays three at UT Martin next
weekend, then returns home to host current league-leader, Murray
State, for a three-game set, May 21-22.
Murray State is holding onto first place with am 11-5 record,
giving the Racers a .687 winning percentage. The OVC regular season
champion is determined by percentage points, since many times not
all teams play the same number of games. Tech is second with a .642
mark, followed closely by Southeast Missouri (10-6) with a .625
mark and Jacksonville State (10-7) at .588.
Austin Peay left town with a 22-22 overall record and a 4-11 mark
in the OVC.
On Sunday, Archer blanked the Govs through the first four
innings and the Golden Eagles provided runs in each of the first
three innings to build a 6-0 lead.
Tech actually scored enough in its three-run first inning for the
victory. Austin Wulf and Tate McMillan drew walks off APSU starter
Stephen Huff (4-5), and a fielder's choice put runners at the
corners with one out. Chad Oberacker continued his torrid season
with an RBI bunt single, scoring Wulf. Burgess also singled to load
the bases, and Casanova Donaldson punched a single through the
right side that plated two more runs for a 3-0 lead.
Huff got into trouble quickly in the second, as well. He hit
leadoff hitter Chad Hayes with a 2-0 pitch, then walked Frankie Beech. Wulf moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt and
McMillan's groundout scored Hayes. Beech raced home on a wild
pith to make it 5-0.
Burgess clobbered a 1-0 pitch over the fence in the left field
power alley with one down in the third, making it 6-0.
The Govs got one run off Archer in the top of the fifth. Jared
DeLong and Cody Hudson each singled to open the inning, and Reed
Harper's groundout chased Delong home to make it 6-1.
The Govs trimmed the deficit to 6-2 with a single run in the top
of the seventh off Choate. With one out, Josh Purcell singled
and both Jon Clinard and Chris Lewellyn walked to load the sacks.
Matt Kole's groundout scored Purcell, but Choate got the
final out with a harmless grounder to first.
Tech chased Huff early in the seventh. After a strikeout to open
the inning, Wulf legged out a triple into the gap in right center
and McMillan's single up the middle made it 7-1. That
brought in David Vicini, who gave up a single to A.J. Kirby-Jones
and a walk to Oberacker to load the bases.
Burgess punched a single to right to score two runs, and bring
Jeremy Dobbs from the bullpen for APSU, but he lasted just one
batter when he plunked Donaldson on the second pitch. Dylan Ray
took over and Devin Rivers greeted him with a sacrifice fly that
scored Oberacker to make it 10-2.
Archer worked five innings, allowing just one run on six hits.
He walked two and struck out five Gov batters. Choate yielded two
hits over his four innings on the hill, giving up one run while
walking three and fanning one.
Huff took the loss, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing eight runs on
seven hits. He walked three and struck out seven. Dylan, the fourth
APSU pitcher of the game, worked 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief
with one strikeout.
Burgess finished with three of Tech's nine hits on a 3-for-4
effort. No other Golden Eagle hitter had more than one hit, but
four players reached base twice with a hit and a walk, including
Wulf, McMillan, Oberacker and Beech.
No Governor hitter had more than one hit in the game as Austin
Peay finished with eight hits, although leadoff hitter Clinard
reached base three times with a hit and two walks.
The Golden Eagles will host Middle Tennessee Tuesday at 6 p.m. in
Bush Stadium in a nonconference game, before venturing to Martin
for the weekend.
