Featured photo by Ryan Loftis

Story by Conner Smith

Murfreesboro, TN- Middle Tennessee baseball fell 8-4 Saturday at the hands of archrival Western Kentucky at Reese Smith Jr. Field. The Blue Raiders went down early and couldn’t come back. 

Western struck first with a three-run fourth inning to shock the Blue Raiders. Gabe Jennings responded by driving in DJ Wright in the sixth. Western came ready to play with another three-run inning in the seventh.

MT tacked on another run in the seventh to cut the lead to four runs. Brett Coker delivered again with a two-run double in the eighth to make it just a two-run ballgame.

MTSU knew it had to lock down the ninth if it wanted a chance to walk it off. It could not as the Hilltoppers scored two to make it a four-run game. The Blue Raiders did get one on base but couldn’t get any across as they dropped game two of the series.

“You have no leeway when you trail,” MTSU head coach Jerry Meyers said. “You pitch a little differently when you don’t have a cushion. That ended up hurting us, but the game was in a good spot in terms of having opportunities to get back in it. We tried to do that, we competed well at the plate. But they had some good arms, and they used their bullpen like they wanted to.” 

Conner Smith is a sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at [email protected].