Box Score

RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky behind 4-0, but stormed back to beat East Tennessee, 9-4, on Tuesday at Earle Combs Stadium.
 
With the game tied 4-4, Jacob Abbott completed the comeback with an RBI single to left center in the bottom of the fifth inning.  Ryland Kerr extended the lead to 6-4 with a run-scoring double down the left field line in the bottom of the sixth.
 
ETSU (17-12) loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh, but Andrew McWhorter came in and got a strikeout and a double play to end the inning.
 
"The game came down to Andrew McWhorter," said EKU Head Coach Edwin Thompson.  "Bases loaded there, nobody out – strike out and a double play – took them out of the inning.  That was a huge part of the game."
 
Alex Holderbach hit his eighth home run of the season, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth, to set the final score.
 
East Tennessee jumped out to a 4-0 lead.  Aaron Maher drove in two runs with a single to right in the top of the second to make it a 3-0 game.  Maher's sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth pushed the visitors out in front by four.
 
The Colonels (16-17) erased that Buccaneer lead in the bottom of the fourth.  Will Johnson's single through the right side with two on and one out pushed in EKU's first run of the game.  Daniel Harris IV got Eastern within one with a two-run single up the middle.  With the hit-and-run on, Chris Botsoe scored the tying run when he motored home from second base on a ground ball to the second baseman.
 
"We were down two, down four and the guys really battled," Thompson said.  "We come back and scored four in the fourth, and then we scored one or two every inning the rest of the way.  Our bullpen and our staff did a great job overall to limit that team to five hits.  That's a really good team."
 
Kerr went 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI.  Harris finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
 
Jaxson Blair (1-1) earned the win after allowing one run on two hits in three innings of relief work.  He walked three and struck out two.
 
Maher had a 2-for-4 day with three RBIs for East Tennessee.
 
EKU will face Northern Kentucky University at home on Wednesday.  First pitch at Earle Combs Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m.