Two weeks into the Middle Tennessee baseball season, head coach Jerry Meyers’ squad has squeaked through with a winning record after two home series and a midweek trip to a power four program.
After dropping three of the first four games against Bowling Green and a one-off with Alabama, the Blue Raiders had a huge weekend against Fairleigh Dickinson as they swept the Knights to move to 4-3 on the season.
With seven games in the books, a few players have jumped out for the Blue Raiders between performances on the mound and in the batter’s box.
The weekend starting rotation has shown as the true strength of the Blue Raiders. Across six starts from Trace Phillips, Chandler Alderman and Drew Horn, the trio combined for 32.2 innings with a 0.83 ERA while striking out 43 batters and allowing only 20 hits.
“Our three starters are doing really good, and we all have a feel for it right now,” Horn said.
Phillips, who has taken over Friday night duties for the Blue Raiders, leads the charge for the starting rotation. Through his two starts, Phillips has opened 2025 with 12 consecutive scoreless innings.
“Attacking with the fastball and trying to get ahead in the count in the early innings has been working for me,” Phillips said. “I have the mindset of trying to get into the bullpen with the least amount of runs as possible.”
Phillips tied a career high in strikeouts against FDU, with nine total punchouts.
In Alderman’s two starts, the southpaw provided Middle Tennessee with 9.2 innings to the tune of a 1.86 ERA. Alderman shutout FDU over six innings, while giving up five to Bowling Green with two charged as earned runs.
“Last weekend I got behind in the count and I wasn’t letting my stuff play to the best of its ability,” Alderman said. “Today [Feb. 22 against FDU] I just had some confidence out there and I threw my best stuff.”
Horn has been as impressive as his counterparts when taking the mound on Sundays. Through 11 innings, Horn has racked up 17 strikeouts while surrendering only two hits, both of which came off the bat of BGSU’s Gavin Ganun. The Walters State transfer currently leads Conference USA in batting average against, holding opponents to a .100 average.
Although Horn has limited runs and has induced tons of swings and misses in his first two outings, walks pose to be a problem for the redshirt sophomore after allowing five against FDU.
“I got a little wild in that game,” Horn said.
During their four wins so far this season, the Blue Raiders have dominated in all facets, defeating opponents a combined 41-5 while showcasing offensive firepower.
Eston Snider has started his senior season on fire at the plate thus far. Bouncing between leadoff and the nine spot in the lineup, Snider has gone 15-28 to the tune of .536/.600/.893 slash line, all the while learning the ropes in center field. Snider added three home runs this past weekend against FDU, with a leadoff home run Friday night, a grand slam Saturday and a solo homer Sunday.
“They’re just throwing it in there and I’m just reacting,” Snider said. “Just walking up and trying not to do too much and just trying to put bat on ball.”
An unexpected bright spot for the Middle Tennessee offense has been Clay Badylak. In the opening series against Bowling Green, Badylak saw one at-bat as Cooper Clapp started the first two games of the series before getting hit on the hand and breaking a hamate, Meyers said.
In four starts since Clapp went down, Badylak has gone 5-10 from the dish with four walks and five RBIs including a triple on Sunday against FDU.
“[I] was just trying to stay to our approach, see a fastball up then just pull breaking balls,” Badylak said. “Trying to keep it out of the air and just hitting hard ground balls.”
Tyler Minnick has had one of the biggest impacts for Middle Tennessee, after starting all seven games including six behind the plate. Minnick has hit .444 with five multi-hit games so far.
“I just feed off the energy from my teammates,” Minnick said. “As a team one through nine, we did a really good job this weekend, so it was easy coming in the box after what Eston [Snider] did in the lead-off, or what [Matt] Wolfe or [Brett] Vondohlen did in the two-hole.”
Minnick has also been a big part in the success of the Blue Raider pitching staff, as he’s started in six of MTSU’s seven games so far.
“They made my life very easy,” Minnick said. “They just absolutely went up there, executed the game plan, pounded the zone, and executed all pitches.”
MTSU will continue its out-of-conference slate this week, welcoming Austin Peay to Murfreesboro for a mid-week matchup on Tuesday along with UT Martin, Old Dominion and St. Bonaventure for weekend matchups from Feb. 28 to March 1.
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