Box Score

RICHMOND, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team salvaged Sunday’s series finale by pounding out 18 hits in a 14-6 win over Jacksonville State on Senior Day at Turkey Hughes Field.

Eight seniors were honored before the game, and two of those seniors, Austin Grisham and Shaun Ball, belted key home runs to help ignite the rout.

Before the seniors struck, though, it was the freshmen who got the Colonel bats going. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the second, freshmen Luke Wurzelbacher and Kyle Nowlin delivered back-to-back sacrifice flies to give EKU a 3-1 lead. Freshman Doug Teegarden then capped the scoring in the inning with an RBI base knock up the middle that plated Grisham and made it 4-1.

EKU continued to build on its lead in the home half of the third. Ball led off that frame with a single, stole second and scored on a double down the left field line by Kenny Hostrander. Grisham then turned on a ball, blasting only his second home of the season over the wall in right field to make the score 7-1.

After Ball clubbed a two-run shot in the fourth to give the Colonels an eight-run advantage, JSU started to slowly crawl back in the game, scoring a run in the top of the fifth and then adding three more in the top of the sixth to pull within four, 10-6.

However, EKU responded with three runs of its own in the home half of the sixth to stretch its lead back to seven and put the game out of contention. Junior Bryan Soloman led off the sixth with a home run, and consecutive singles by senior Alex Hughes and Hostrander put runners on the corner for Grisham, who lofted a sacrifice fly center field. Nowlin then plated Hostrander with a base hit up the middle that made it 13-6.

Soloman made it 14-6 in the bottom of the eighth with another home run to right-center, his second home run of the game and third of the series.

Junior right-hander Matt Lynch (1-5) started on the hill for EKU and picked up his first victory as a Colonel, going 5.1 solid innings and allowing six runs on just five hits. Senior left-hander Shane Grimm then tossed 3.1 scoreless innings before giving way to senior right-hander Austin Rexroat, who closed out the game by getting Paschael Petrongolo to ground out to second base.

JSU starter Tony Urban (2-3) picked up the loss, lasting just 1.2 innings and surrendering four runs on three hits.

Hostrander led the EKU attack by going 5-for-5 on the day with an RBI and three runs scored. Every Colonel who stepped to the plate on the day reached base.

EKU, which improved to 18-30 (14-12 OVC) with the win, hosts Dayton on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. before closing out the regular season with a three-game series at Murray State.