Dorms and apartments emptied on Friday evening as many students jumped at the chance to flee for spring break. But amidst the mass exodus of homeward travelers, there wasn’t a single Blue Raider athlete (or student reporter for that matter) among them.

A packed sports weekend in the ‘Boro kept players and journalists busy and saw history made on the mound and conference tournament seeds locked in at Murphy Center.

Without further delay, here’s everything that happened across Blue Raider sports over the weekend.

Baseball sweeps Oakland in action packed series

Middle Tennessee baseball (9-5) swept Oakland (3-14) in a three-game series in Murfreesboro this weekend, including a historic performance on the mound Sunday. 

MTSU found its first victory of the series on Friday afternoon, taking down Oakland 8-4. 

The Golden Grizzlies scratched one across in the top of the first with an RBI single from catcher Matthew McGann. The Blue Raiders bounced back in the bottom half, as Tyler Minnick sent a line drive over the left field wall for a two-run home run. 

Oakland’s offense added on against MTSU’s ace Trace Phillips in the fourth and fifth, with a solo home run from Carter Hain and another RBI single from McGann.  

The MTSU bats woke up in the seventh, scoring four runs in the inning. Nathan Brewer plated two for the Blue Raiders after a double, and Kenny McKinley hit a two-run home run to center, to gain a 6-3 lead. 

Middle Tennessee added a run in the seventh as Cale Vinson scored off an errant McGann throw that sailed into center field, and one in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Matt Wolfe. 

Head coach Jerry Meyers’ bullpen shined in the win on Friday, as the duo of Jonny Stevens and Landen Burch provided four innings of one-run ball. The relief performances complimented a shaky day on the mound from Phillips, as he went five innings while giving up three runs. The righty picked up seven strikeouts, pushing his season total to 29. 

Saturday afternoon, the Blue Raiders took game two with an 11th inning walk-off single courtesy of Jaxon Junnila, as part of a 2-4 day at the plate for the junior catcher. 

Oakland once again got the scoring started in the first inning, as McGann picked up a single to score two and Ben Clark found his first hit of the series to score one.  

MTSU’s offense responded in the bottom of the second as it put up a five spot in the inning. Wolfe and Snider picked up an RBI each, while Brett Vondohlen scored three on his seventh home run of the year as he sent a ball to the upper deck of Floyd Stadium beyond the left field wall. 

The starting pitchers settled in after the two scoring outbursts, as Chandler Alderman lasted 5.1 innings, allowing only the three runs, all scored in the first inning. Grant Garman got comfortable for the Golden Grizzlies, going five innings of five-run ball. 

The bats remained silent against each side’s bullpens until the top of the ninth when Aidan Schuck drove in two runs against Will Jenkins to tie the game at five. 

The Blue Raiders had two runners on with no outs in the bottom of the tenth, but Ryan Uhlenhake induced a double play to get the Golden Grizzlies out of the jam. 

With two outs and no runners in the eleventh, Wolfe dropped a line drive down the left field line for a double. Junnila called game in the next at-bat, sneaking a chopper through the middle of the infield to score Wolfe. 

Ollie Akens provided MTSU with two innings of scoreless relief in the 10th and 11th to pick up the win.  

The Blue Raiders finished the sweep with a historic pitching performance Sunday afternoon, as redshirt sophomore Drew Horn threw the fifth no-hitter in program history in a 5-0 win. 

Horn compiled 13 strikeouts across nine innings of no-hit ball, while Oakland only managed three base runners via two walks and a hit batsman. 

Eston Snider sealed the no-hitter in shallow center field, as he dove full extension for a fly ball off the bat of Shuck. 

The run support in game three came from all over the lineup, as Snider, Cale Vinson and Keaton Ray picked up RBIs in the fourth inning, while Minnick plated two in the seventh. 

Along with the RBI in the fourth, Ray went 2-2 with two doubles and reached base on a hit by pitch in his first game since the Fairleigh Dickinson series finale on Feb. 23.  

MTSU baseball will host five games over the university’s spring break, including two midweek matchups with in-state rivals Belmont and Tennessee Tech, along with a weekend series against the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Willie Phaler

Women’s hoops secures share of CUSA title

After a disappointing loss to Liberty on Thursday night, MTSU women’s basketball bounced back against FIU to secure a share of its third-straight Conference USA title.  

The Lady Raiders couldn’t buy a bucket against Liberty with only 15 scores from the field and 11 free throws for 42 total points. Middle Tennessee got back to winning against FIU in the final tune-up before the CUSA tournament.  

Guards Jalynn Gregory and Ta’Mia Scott led the way with 22 and 19 points. Point guard Courtney Blakely added 13 points, reaching double digits for her second game in a row which will prove valuable to the Lady Raiders in the postseason. 

MTSU’s first CUSA tournament game will be against the winner of UTEP and Kennesaw State and is set for March 12 at 2:00 p.m. CDT. Jacob Burgess

Men’s hoops downs FIU on senior day

MTSU men’s basketball split its final two regular season games, losing to Liberty before defeating FIU on senior day. 

Essam Mostafa led the Blue Raiders against the Liberty Flames with 30 points and 20 rebounds, the first 30-20 game in team history. The loss to Liberty knocked the Blue Raiders out of contention for first place in Conference USA. 

MTSU bounced back against FIU on senior day, however, to lock in third place in CUSA. Seniors Mostafa, Camryn Weston and Jestin Porter led MTSU with 10, 15 and 12 points respectively.  

MTSU begins the conference tournament against Louisiana Tech on March 13 at 8:00 p.m. CDT. Jacob Burgess

Softball goes 1-2 in first conference series

MTSU softball dropped its first conference series of the season this weekend, going 1-2 against Florida International. 

Addy Edgmon and Jana Want were hot in the batter’s box over the weekend. Edgmon notched one RBI and two homers, while Want had two RBIs and a homerun.  

The Blue Raiders opened the series with a loss, falling to the Panthers 6-5 on a walk off homerun on Friday night.  

Julia Garcia hit two home runs for the Blue Raiders that scored four of their five runs. Edgmon had an RBI triple to add another run to the board.  

The Blue Raiders caught fire Saturday with 14 hits and 12 runs to defeat the Panthers 12-1. Middle Tennessee amped up scoring in the final two innings with four runs in the sixth and seventh. 

The only run allowed by the Blue Raiders came in the fourth inning. FIU totaled seven hits, but the MTSU defense was able to strand the runners.  

In the series finale, MTSU fell to FIU 7-4. The Panthers got their bats moving in the third inning and made their lead 6-2 before adding another run in the bottom of the sixth. FIU had a total of ten hits with seven RBIs in comparison to MTSU’s seven hits for four runs. 

The Blue Raiders are set to travel to the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday, March 11 and Mississippi State on Wednesday, March 12 before hosting conference opponent, Sam Houston, over the weekend.  Erin Douglas

Women’s tennis drops weekend double header

MTSU women’s tennis dropped both matches this weekend in a double header against FIU and Ball State on Saturday. 

Middle Tennessee started off the double header facing a Conference USA opponent in FIU. 

The Blue Raiders started off slow with Eloise Swarbrick and Lena Peyer falling 6-2, and Alessia Truden and Rutuja Chaphalkar falling 6-4, allowing the Panthers to clinch the doubles point. 

MTSU never picked up steam as the matches transitioned to singles and were defeated in straight-set victories on courts two, three and five, ending the match with a score of 4-0 in favor of FIU. 

The Blue Raiders came back rejuvenated for their next match against Ball State, however, as the pairing of Truden and Chaphalker led the charge with a commanding 6-1 win. Cassidy Mataia and Ilaria Sposetti sealed the doubles point with a 6-2 victory giving the Blue Raiders an early 1-0 lead. 

Ball State soon struck back with Isabelle Tanjuatco claiming a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Mataia.  Truden retaliated for Middle Tennessee by picking up her eighth win of the season with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Elena Malykh. 

After back-and-forth action, Ball State picked up two huge wins on courts two and four putting the Cardinals in the driver’s seat with a 3-2 lead.  Zenn Lim kept the match alive for MTSU though, with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Alana Bristow to even the team score at 3-3. 

The match came to a boiling point with the winner of court three securing the match for their team.  Lena Peyer fought through leg cramps in a tight match against Sarah Shahbaz, yet her efforts would not be enough as Shahbaz triumphed in a seven-point tiebreak, losing 2-6, 6-3, 2-7 giving Ball State a 4-3 victory. 

The Blue Raiders look to bounce back next week as they head to Florida for matchups against Navy and Hillsborough College. Will Phillips

Men’s tennis rests up before west coast trip

MTSU men’s tennis (9-8) took a bye week following an Ivy League road stand.

The Blue Raiders fell to No. 20 Princeton and No. 11 Harvard before their week of rest and are set to hit the west coast for matches against No. 23 Pepperdine on Tuesday and No. 7 San Diego on Thursday.

Middle Tennessee will stay on the road next weekend, traveling to New Orleans to face off with Tulane on Sunday, March 16. Brett Walker