Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
24-29-1
FAU
32-24
Blue Raiders 2021 Season Comes to an End in Loss to FAU
5/28/2021 8:25:00 PM | Baseball
MT fell into an early hole in the bottom of the second inning. The Owls collected three runs on five hits, knocking Blue Raider starting pitcher Trent Seibert out of the game after just 1.2 innings pitched.
Pitching duties shifted over to right-hander Zach Keenan who pitched the next 4.1 innings and held the FAU bats at bay, striking out a pair of Owl batters along the way.
The Blue Raiders inched back, grabbing a run in the third on an RBI single by Cole Escher and added another run on a solo home run off the bat of DJ Wright in the fourth.
Wright, the Raiders' designated hitter, came up to bat again in the fifth with a pair of Raider runners on base. The Murfreesboro product hammered his second home run in consecutive at-bats over the left field wall to give MT a 5-3 lead.
FAU answered in the bottom of the sixth inning with back-to-back solo home runs, knotting the game at 5-5.
However, it didn't take long for the Blue Raiders to reclaim the lead. MT picked up three runs on five hits from Brett Coker, Cole Escher, JT Mabry, Daniel Freeman, and Bryce Symlar to head into the back third of the game.
All-Conference USA First Team selection David Zoz entered the game to start the bottom of the seventh inning. Zoz made his first appearance of the tournament on Wednesday to close out the Raiders' 7-2 victory over the 49ers.
The reliable Raider reliever didn't have his best stuff after a day's rest and allowed eight runs on eight hits over 1.1 innings pitched.
In his 23 other appearances in 2021, Zoz had only given up more than one run in an outing all season (2 at Memphis on Mar. 21).
Freshman Jacob Williams roped a pinch-hit double into the right-center field gap and gave the Blue Raiders a runner in the top of the eighth inning, but couldn't bring him around.
The Blue Raiders' season came to a close after the 14-8 loss, but MT had the highlight of the 2021 Air Force Reserve C-USA Baseball Championship by defeating top seed and 16th-ranked Charlotte in their opening game after a six-year hiatus from the postseason.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Dante Visconti (5-2)
L: Zoz, David (6-3)
Batting:
2B: Lopez, Fausto 1 ; Freeman, Daniel 1 ; Williams, Jacob 1
HR: Wright, DJ 2
RBI: Escher, Cole 1 ; Wright, DJ 4 ; Mabry, JT 1 ; Freeman, Daniel 1 ; Symlar, Bryce 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lopez, Fausto 2 ; Coker, Brett 2 ; Escher, Cole 1 ; Wright, DJ 2 ; Mabry, JT 1
SB: Lopez, Fausto 1 ; Coker, Brett 1
Batting:
2B: Wilfredo Alvarez 1 ; B.J. Murray 1 ; Nolan Schanuel 1 ; Steven Loden 1 ; Mitchell Hartigan 1 ; Jalen DeBose 1
HR: Steven Loden 1 ; Bobby Morgensen 1 ; Caleb Pendleton 2 ; Mitchell Hartigan 1
RBI: B.J. Murray 1 ; Nolan Schanuel 3 ; Steven Loden 3 ; Bobby Morgensen 1 ; Caleb Pendleton 3 ; Mitchell Hartigan 1 ; Jalen DeBose 1 ; Jackson Wenstrom 1
SH: Wilfredo Alvarez 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilfredo Alvarez 1 ; B.J. Murray 1 ; Nolan Schanuel 2 ; Steven Loden 2 ; Bobby Morgensen 1 ; Caleb Pendleton 3 ; Mitchell Hartigan 1 ; Jalen DeBose 2 ; Jackson Wenstrom 1
CS: Bobby Morgensen 1
