The Murray State baseball team was able to hold off a late rally for victory in game one Thursday but weren’t as fortunate in the second as the Aggies split a league twinbill on the road at National Park College in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In the opener, the Aggies posted a 6-4 win before the Nighthawks responded for a 5-4 triumph in the nightcap, dropping Murray State’s record to 22-8 overall and 6-4 in conference play. They will close out the four-game series Friday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader in Hot Springs.
Staff ace Colby Langford was solid in the first game victory, twirling five innings in which he yielded only one run on two, struck out 10 and walked five. Nathan Darden came out of the bullpen for the final one and two-third stanzas for the save as he gave up just two hits and fanned three.
The Aggies put together a two-out rally in the third inning to break a scoreless deadlock. Garrett Gruell and Clay Jung each singled before a Wilbert Espinal double to centerfield plated two. Patrick McCullough added a fourth straight hit for an RBI that made it 3-0.
Murray State tacked on a fourth inning run on a Gage Gilchrist RBI single. They picked up another a frame later on Espinal’s solo home run. Gruell and Jung led the charge again with singles to ignite another scoring burst.
Gruell, Jung and Espinal each tallied two hits to fuel the Aggie offense.
Game two was a scoreless duel until the fifth when Murray State broke the ice. Brady Benedict singled and Gilchrist doubled ahead of Gruell’s RBI sacrifice fly.
The Aggies finally got on the board again in the seventh inning, pushing across three key tallies. Kale Miller got it going with a solo home run to lead off the stanza. Benedict then walked ahead of a Gruell blast over the leftfield wall.
That edge was short-lived however as National Park recorded four straight singles and capitalized on three hit batsmen.
Josh Shimmin was saddled with the pitching loss, allowing two runs on three hits in the seventh. Dylan Hill tossed six innings, yielding one run on three hits and five strikeouts.
Gruell tallied three hits with Gilchrist, Jung, Espinal, Miller and Benedict all accounting for one hit apiece.
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