Featured photo by Ryan Loftis
Story by Conner Smith
Middle Tennessee baseball fell 5-3 to the Evansville Purple Aces on Sunday afternoon at Reese Smith Jr. Field. The Blue Raiders were stagnant for most of the game but made a near-miracle comeback in the ninth.
Evansville scored the first five runs of the game and going into the bottom of the ninth it looked like the Blue Raiders would be shut out. That was before it created a rally. Pinch hitter Tatsunori Negishi sent a rocket into right field that put him at third and drove in two runs. Just a few pitches later he would score on a wild pitch.
Ultimately the Blue Raiders popped out and grounded out to end the ballgame. Evansville took the three-game slate and the series finale 5-3, bringing MT’s record to 7-8.
“Evansville is a good team,” MTSU head coach Jerry Meyers said. “They’re older and didn’t make a lot of mistakes. They didn’t give us a whole lot and they took advantage of anything we gave them. We did some good things to try and play damage control but playing catch-up was not a good position to be in.”
MTSU hits the diamond again this Wednesday against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at 6 P.M. C.T.
Conner Smith is a sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at [email protected].