Golden Eagles complete sweep over EKU in crucial OVC series
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech baseball team found
its groove in a big way Saturday, completing a three-game Ohio
Valley Conference sweep of Eastern Kentucky with a pair of wins in
a double-header, beating the Colonels 8-2 and 4-3.
After a slow start in conference play, Tech improved to 16-12
overall, and 4-7 in the OVC, and is right back in the thick of
things with 12 conference games remaining. “Our guys executed
extremely well today, and we did a lot of little things right, and
that’s what you need to do to win, and beat good
teams,” head coach Matt Bragga said. “It’s a
great weekend, our guys played with a lot of passion, and competed
really well and played with a lot of resolve, so I’m proud of
them.”
Tech had three bunt-singles on the day, and was 3-for-4 in stolen
base attempts while hitting a combined .449 in the two games.
“Coach always preaches getting our bunts in the kill zones,
and when you’ve got guys who can really run you never know
what’s going to happen,” senior catcher Cory Wright
said.
Eastern Kentucky (18-12, 6-6) came into the series leading the OVC
in batting average and stolen bases, but Tech held the Colonels to
a .196 batting average for the day, and Wright foiled both of
EKU’s steal attempts against him.
“We had talked all week how EKU led the conference in stolen
bags,” Wright said. “They don’t necessarily have
a lot guys that are too fast out there, they just pick good times
to steal. I took it upon myself to shut that down early, and they
kept trying to go, so that just gave me more opportunities to
throw, and my arm was feeling good.”
In the first game of the double-header Tech’s pitching staff
shut down the EKU offense, as Michael Alcorn started on the mound,
and pitched three innings, allowing one earned run, before A.J.
Kirby-Jones pitched the last four innings, giving up just one hit
and no runs while fanning four batters.
The Golden Eagle offense had no problem getting started, as Tech
piled on eight runs on 10 hits, led by senior Alex Henry, who went
3-for-3 with two RBIs and his second home run of the season.
Casanova Donaldson and Tate McMillan each went 2-for-3, and Ben
Burgess banged out three RBIs as Tech put together a five-run
second inning to take control of the game early.
Tech’s bats didn’t cool off for the second game, as the
team hit .500 for the game, going 12-of-24 from the plate.
With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth, Kirby-Jones
blasted his team-leading 10th home run of the season, a solo shot,
to give Tech its final 4-3 advantage. Henry, Donaldson, Evan Webb
and Chad Oberacker each went 2-for-3 in that game.
It was another outstanding pitching performance in that game that
helped the Golden Eagles to victory, as Lee Henry pitched a
complete game (seven innings) allowing just five hits and one
earned run.
Alex Henry finished the day going 5-for-6 from the plate. With two
hits in each game, Donaldson extended his current hit streak to
seven games.
The Golden Eagles host a non-conference double-header on April 14
against Covenent at 4 p.m. and visit East Tennessee State for a
return game on April 15 before traveling to Austin Peay for a
three-game OVC series April 18 and 19.
