Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Tuesday, May 14
Nashville, TN.
6:30 PM
Middle Tennessee
18-34
2
at
5
Vanderbilt
42-10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Middle Tennessee
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
8
0
Vanderbilt
0
0
0
2
0
1
2
0
X
5
9
1
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Jake Eder (1-0)
L: Bair, Carter (1-1)
S: Tyler Brown (13)
Batting:
2B: Christian, Myles 1 ; Freeman Jr., Darrell 1
RBI: Antonini, Aaron 1 ; Thomas, Brycen 1
SF: Antonini, Aaron 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Christian, Myles 1 ; Freeman Jr., Darrell 1
HBP: Benefield, Blake 1 ; Freeman Jr., Darrell 1
Batting:
2B: Ethan Paul 1 ; Pat DeMarco 1 ; Harrison Ray 1
HR: Stephen Scott 1
RBI: Ethan Paul 1 ; Pat DeMarco 1 ; Stephen Scott 2 ; Harrison Ray 1
Base Running:
RUNS: JJ Bleday 1 ; Ethan Paul 1 ; Philip Clarke 1 ; Stephen Scott 2
HBP: Stephen Scott 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
C
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballRHP/IF
/ Baseball
Blue Raiders hang tough but fall to #2 Vandy
5/14/2019 10:14:00 PM | Baseball
Murfreesboro, Tenn.— Middle Tennessee (18-34, 11-16) came to the plate in the fifth inning looking for answers. It trailed by only two runs and was still trying to figure out Vanderbilt (42-10, 20-7) starter Mason Hickman. After the Blue Raiders loaded the bases to begin the night, the bats fell silent, only mustering one baserunner between the second and fourth innings.
Middle Tennessee shortstop Myles Christian would answer the call in the fifth inning, lifting a one-out double to centerfield to advance Darrell Freeman to third base. Following an Aaron Antonini sac-fly that cut the Vanderbilt lead to 2-1 while moving Christian to third base, the table was set for the man coming off of a career best 4-for-5 outing against Florida International just two days ago; Brycen Thomas.
With a hit under his belt coming into the at-bat, Thomas did just what he needed to do to tie things up. On a 1-1 pitch, he got just enough of the barrel of his bat to drop it just over the head of Vanderbilt shortstop Ethan Paul's head into centerfield to knot the game up at two.
MTSU did what it had to do to keep it close as the game winded down, but couldn't muster the extra offense it needed after Vanderbilt took a late lead, falling 5-2.
"It was a tight game against one of the top teams in the country," said Head Coach Jim Toman. "We had eight hits and our pitchers competed against one of the top three or four offenses in the country."
Middle Tennessee was paced at the plate by Darrell Freeman, who racked up three of the Blue Raiders eight hits on the night while scoring the first run of the ballgame for Middle. The senior left-fielder extended his hitting streak to five games and has driven in four runs during that streak.
Coach Toman went with senior Tyler Holcombe on the mound to begin the night. The Georgia native put together one of his better outings on the year, matching a season-high 3.1 innings while only allowing a pair of Commodore runs. In what was Holcombe's third start of the season, he collected a pair of strikeouts while working out of two situations in which Vanderbilt had runners in scoring position while the game was scoreless.
"(Holcombe) pitched well and threw strikes," Toman said. "We wanted to get him out early and not burn up any arms for the weekend. Tyler threw really well and so did the other pitchers. To hold an offense like that to five runs is a pretty good job."
Holcombe was relieved in the fourth inning by Drew Huff, who threw 1.2 innings of hitless ball while getting himself two strikeouts. Scheldon Paulk and Conner Bell combined to allow just one hit and only two baserunners over the final 1.1 innings of the night.
"The guys showed some fight," Toman said. "If we play good defense and pitch a little bit and get some hits like we did tonight against some really good arms, we should do ok (this weekend) against (Florida Atlantic)."
What's next?
The Blue Raiders travel to Boca Raton, Florida, on Thursday for the final weekend series of the season against the Florida Atlantic Owls. First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Central time.
Anthony Fiorella is a writer for goblueraiders.com. Follow him on Twitter @a_fiorella74 and also follow @MTAthletics for more on the Blue Raiders.
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