Wilbert Espinal/Baseball | Murray State College
Wilbert Espinal/Baseball | Murray State College
Tenth ranked Murray State tallied runs in each of the first five innings and then held off Richland College, 10-8, for a road baseball victory Monday afternoon in Dallas to run its winning streak to 10 straight..
The Aggies improved to 15-2 on the season and will be back on Friday for a three-game series at LSU-Eunice in Louisiana.
Murray State plated three runs in the opening inning to take the lead for good in the nine-inning affair, but the Aggies had to continue scoring from there to hold the Thunderducks at bay.
Two hit batters and a walk loaded the bases in the first stanza as the initial run came across on a wild pitch and Wilbert Espinal scored the other two with a single.
Richland answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame but Murray responded with one in the second, utilizing a Brady Benedict single and Gage Gilchrist double before a Clay Jung RBI sacrifice fly. Trace Necessary blasted a solo homer to leadoff the third and Benedict made it 6-2 with another sacrifice fly.
The hosts narrowed the gap to a single run again in their half of the frame but Murray managed to add some breathing room with one tally in the fourth and three in the fifth.
Jung doubled and scored on a Necessary single for the single run with Garrett Gruell spurring the three-run flurry an inning later with a two RBI smash over the leftfield wall.
Richland notched a run in the fifth and two in the seventh before Aggie relievers Ryan Dugas and Tyler Zylstra slammed the door with a scoreless frame in relief apiece. Zylstra fanned two for the save as Josh Shimmin was the winning hurler with an inning and two-thirds of no-hit relief work.
Murray State posted 11 hits as Gilchrist, Gruell, Necessary and Benedict all contributed two. Espinal drove in three while Gruell and Necessary plated a pair apiece.
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