After an up-and-down opening series at Reese Smith Jr. Field this past weekend where Middle Tennessee baseball lost two out of three games against Bowling Green, three storylines jumped out from Jerry Meyers’ newly overturned squad. 

Trace Phillips is a force to be reckoned with 

One thing that stood out from the beginning of game one Friday night was the presence of Trace Phillips on the mound. 

MLB Pipeline’s 80th ranked prospect showed out on the mound, leading the Blue Raiders in their first game of the season. With a jump in velocity this offseason that has stood out to major league scouts, Phillips flaunted it in the first at-bat of the season while firing in fastballs for strikes at 95 and 97 miles per hour.  

Phillips finished his day with six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and picking up eight strikeouts along the way. 

“Working with him is easy,” catcher Tyler Minnick said of the right-handed pitcher. 

Phillips went two for 14 at the plate this weekend, finding two singles in game three. Bowling Green was very careful with Phillips at the plate, as he had a team high four walks in the three games. 

Although Phillips didn’t have the weekend he wanted to at the plate, head coach Jerry Meyers knows it won’t be an issue for the preseason All-CUSA selection. 

“On the mound he [Phillips] was outstanding,” Meyers said. “At-bat wise, he’s going to be a threat. That’s why he’s hitting second or third in our lineup, and we’re going to ask a lot of Trace and he’s very capable of doing it on both sides of the ball.” 

A deep and dangerous offense 

If the team proved anything this weekend, it was that it can score in bunches. The Blue Raider bats found 33 runs against the Bowling Green staff, including driving five balls out of the ballpark. 

Success started at the top for MTSU, as senior centerfielder Eston Snider had a big weekend, including five hits in game three alone. This marked the first five hit game for the program since Snider previously did it in 2023 against conference opponent Florida International. On the weekend, Snider collected nine hits and scored five runs while splitting time between leadoff and the nine hole. 

Newcomers to the MTSU offense shined this weekend as well, including Minnick, who hit his first homerun as a Blue Raider in game two on his way to a five hit, four RBI weekend.  

“As a team we had a great game plan, great approaches and that worked for the offense tonight,” Minnick said.  

The production this weekend was spread throughout the lineup, with the six through nine spots shining. Those positions in the lineup hit a combined 16 for 45, good for a .356 average.

This team will go as far as the bullpen allows 

In Middle Tennessee’s opening series of 2025, the team showcased two vastly different versions of the bullpen.  

During a doubleheader for games one and two of this series, the bullpen provided eight innings of two run ball while picking up a save between Landen Burch, Will Jenkins and Jonny Stevens. 

“We have a lot of guys in the bullpen that do a lot of great things and they’re all hard workers,” Minnick said. 

Even with the game two loss on Friday night, there was enough production from the bullpen to keep the Blue Raiders in the game.  

The bullpen success of Friday night was quickly undone in game three of the series on Saturday. After getting six innings and one run allowed, pitcher Drew Horn left the mound in his Blue Raider debut with an 8-1 lead. 

Enter the Blue Raider bullpen’s performance on Saturday: five innings, 11 hits and 11 runs (eight earned). This wasn’t just a blow up of one pitcher either, as every reliever that entered the game was charged with at least one earned run except for Jack Fortner, who entered on cleanup duty once the Bowling Green lead was pushed to 12-9. 

The college baseball season is a long one, 55 games to be exact. Blowing leads and giving up comebacks is a large part of that, but blowing a seven-run lead at home in the opening series is especially worrisome for a team that had a 7.36 ERA as a whole in 2024. 

“You have to find a way to make sure we don’t let any negative results creep into our mindset,” Meyers said. “After midnight [instead] of focusing on whether we win or we lose, we focus on what we are trying to do which is kind of our mantra.” 

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