Colby Langford/Baseball | Murray State College
Colby Langford/Baseball | Murray State College
It was quite a contrast in baseball games Friday afternoon at The Ranch but the end results were the same for Murray State as the 10th ranked Aggies took both ends of a doubleheader against North Central Missouri College.
Murray State won a 1-0 pitching duel in the first contest before opening up the offense in the later innings for a 15-5 run-rule triumph over the visitors in the nightcap.
The same two teams will finish up the four-game series with another twinbill on Saturday starting at noon.
Ace pitcher Colby Langford was outstanding as usual for the Aggies, who also got two stellar frames of shutout relief from Nathan Darden along with one perfect frame from Tyler Zylstra. The trio combined to yield only three hits while striking out nine and walking three.
The Aggies were limited to just two hits themselves but made the most of one of them after a Jaxon Gless double to start the second frame. Two batters later he came across with what proved to be the game's only run on a Brady Benedict RBI groundout. Andrew Tinsley had the only other Murray State hit in the game with a fourth-inning single.
Murray State had to overcome a 2-1 deficit in the third inning of game two, but did that and more while scoring in five of the final six frames of the eight-inning affair.
Two runs in the bottom of the third put the Aggies in front for good as that flurry was ignited by a Patrick McCullough double to left. The Murray bats finally showed a glimmer of returning to their early season hotness in the fifth when Clay Jung opened the frame with a solo home run.
North Central narrowed the gap to 7-5 in the top of the seventh but that reprieve was short only as the hosts put it completely on ice with a six-run explosion in the bottom of the frame. McCullough notched a double to drive in two of those with Jung also adding a RBI single.
The Aggies made up for the first game offensive struggles with 16 hits in the nightcap, including six doubles – three of which came via the bat of McCullough, who also drove in three and scored three times. Jung also had three hits, three RBI and scored four runs.
Gage Gilchrist, Wilbert Espinal, Gless and Benedict all contributed two hits for Murray State.
Original source can be found here
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