HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Senior Chris O'Dell hit a home run and sophomore Lucas Waters drove in two but it was not enough as Marshall used a five-run first inning on its way to a 6-3 victory over the Eastern Kentucky baseball team Wednesday at University Heights Field.

Eastern (19-18) sent the tying run to the plate in the ninth after senior Sean Ryan reached on an error and junior Tyler Nix singled up the middle. But reliever Bryson Meyers got pinch-hitter Joe Oliver to fly out to right field to end the game.

Marshall (18-19) took control early with a five-run first inning. With one out, the Thundering Herd strung together five consecutive hits - a double by Adam Frederick, a RBI single from Rich Russell, a RBI double from Brendan Murphy, a two-run double by Aaron Levinson and an RBI single from Adam Ptacek.

The Herd pushed the lead to 6-0 in the third on a Ptacek single that scored Murphy. EKU got the run back in the fifth inning on a leadoff home run by O'Dell, his ninth of the year.

The Colonels cut the lead to three in the seventh inning against Herd reliever Chris Cummings, scoring twice on a double to the left-center field gap by Waters.

Eastern returns to conference play this weekend with a three-game series against conference leader Samford. The teams will kick off the series with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Turkey Hughes Field.