Featured photo by Ryan Loftis
Story by Conner Smith
Murfreesboro, TN- Middle Tennessee baseball took game one of the 100 miles of hate series Friday against Western Kentucky 12-8 at Reese Smith Jr. Field. MTSU took the win behind an emphatic comeback, led by a four-run seventh.
DJ Wright got started in the first inning with a clutch two-out, two-run double that gave MT an early 3-0 lead. That was followed by a three-run second inning to break it open 6-0 against the Hilltoppers. WKU got on the board in the third with a solo home run.
Jaden Hamm’s day ended early as he left after 4.2 innings, striking out five and allowing three runs.
Western Kentucky took the lead 7-6 in the sixth inning off a two-run single, Patrick Johnson then took the bump. However, MTSU wasn’t about to go away quietly. A Gabe Jennings two-run triple capped off a four-run seventh that put the Blue Raiders back in the driver’s seat.
MTSU kept its foot on the gas when Briggs Rutter drove in two on an eighth-inning single to add some insurance runs. James Sells entered the game in the eighth and shut down the Hilltoppers lineup.
“You get six runs early and there is a lot of game left,” MTSU head coach Jerry Meyers said. “They brought a guy out of the bullpen who got some zeroes for them to give them a chance to creep back in. I told our guys that it’s a character win. We put up six early, they come back and chip away and take the lead, and we came back, strung some good at-bats together, got a bunt down, moved some runners, we did some things that go along with winning baseball.”
Conner Smith is a sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at cws4t@mtmail.mtsu.edu.
