Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Friday, February 27
Murfreesboro, Tenn.
3 p.m.
Middle Tennessee
7-2
13
vs
3
Illinois State
6-3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Illinois St.
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
5
1
Middle Tenn.
2
1
3
0
2
5
X
13
13
1
Blue Raider baseball routs Redbirds as offense rallied behind King's spot start
2/27/2026 6:46:00 PM | Baseball
Middle Tennessee baseball (7-2) cruised to its second straight run-rule win with a 13-3 victory over Illinois State (6-3) in a seven inning game that lasted under two-and-a-half hours Friday night.
The Blue Raiders ran away with game one of the three-game series while overcoming unforeseen circumstances, as the regularly scheduled Friday night starter Drew Horn was scratched.
Sophomore right-hander Gavin King (W, 1-1) stepped up in place of Horn, and did his best impression of the club's Friday night ace. Across 5.0 innings, the Nashville native held the Redbirds offense to four hits and one earned run while striking out three hitters.
While King held down the fort on the mound, MTSU's offense did more than its fair share to propel the team to its fourth run-rule win of the season.
The bats got started in the bottom of the first, as senior catcher Tyler Minnick belted his third home run of the year down the left field line to put Middle Tennessee up 2-1.
After the Redbirds tied it at two with a Little League home run by Brayden Zilis in the top of the second, the Blue Raiders bats took off by rattling off 11 runs between the bottom of the second and bottom of the sixth.
Owen Nowak produced one of his three RBI on the day with a sacrifice fly to tie it at two in the second. MTSU grabbed the lead, which they never relinquished, in the third with a Brett Rogers RBI single to score Nathan Brewer. Rogers, along with Minnick later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 6-2 at the end of the third.
The Blue Raiders produced two more runs in the fifth with Clay Badylak and Cooper Clapp scoring on a single by Nowak before a five-run sixth inning to meet the run-rule threshold.
Clapp started the sixth inning scoring by drawing a bases-loaded walk. Matt Wolfe and Badylak both drove in two runs on hits in the inning with a double down the left field line and a single to right field.
Once King's reign on the mound was over, senior right-hander Landon Sexton patched together 1.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one run to the Redbirds.
Right-hander Cole Cates ended the night on the mound in his Blue Raider debut, striking out ISU's Luke Stulga to end the first of three games at The Reese this weekend.
By the Numbers
9: For the second straight game, all nine MTSU batters recorded a hit.
1: King's spot start in place of Horn earned him his first win in his first start at the Division I level.
4: Four Blue Raiders scored two or more runs, including Minnick, Rogers, O'Neill and Clapp.
The Skipper Speaks (Jerry Meyers)
"Our at-bats in the first three innings were really mature and we didn't get out of doing that the whole game," Meyers said. "Late in the game where a couple relievers came in, we didn't chase out of the zone much, we didn't get too big. We were very productive at times because of that."
Player Perspective (Gavin King)
"All week I prepared to go tomorrow to follow up Chandler Alderman tomorrow, and I got let know that I was starting at about 1:30," King said. "There's really no time to think. You just have to go to work, lace the boots up tight, go out there and compete."
Up next
The Blue Raiders and the Redbirds will be back at it for game two of the series tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. MTSU's Chandler Alderman (1-0, 3.24 ERA) is slated to take the hill, while Illinois State is set to Carson Cormier (0-0, 7.71 ERA).
The Blue Raiders ran away with game one of the three-game series while overcoming unforeseen circumstances, as the regularly scheduled Friday night starter Drew Horn was scratched.
Sophomore right-hander Gavin King (W, 1-1) stepped up in place of Horn, and did his best impression of the club's Friday night ace. Across 5.0 innings, the Nashville native held the Redbirds offense to four hits and one earned run while striking out three hitters.
While King held down the fort on the mound, MTSU's offense did more than its fair share to propel the team to its fourth run-rule win of the season.
The bats got started in the bottom of the first, as senior catcher Tyler Minnick belted his third home run of the year down the left field line to put Middle Tennessee up 2-1.
After the Redbirds tied it at two with a Little League home run by Brayden Zilis in the top of the second, the Blue Raiders bats took off by rattling off 11 runs between the bottom of the second and bottom of the sixth.
Owen Nowak produced one of his three RBI on the day with a sacrifice fly to tie it at two in the second. MTSU grabbed the lead, which they never relinquished, in the third with a Brett Rogers RBI single to score Nathan Brewer. Rogers, along with Minnick later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 6-2 at the end of the third.
The Blue Raiders produced two more runs in the fifth with Clay Badylak and Cooper Clapp scoring on a single by Nowak before a five-run sixth inning to meet the run-rule threshold.
Clapp started the sixth inning scoring by drawing a bases-loaded walk. Matt Wolfe and Badylak both drove in two runs on hits in the inning with a double down the left field line and a single to right field.
Once King's reign on the mound was over, senior right-hander Landon Sexton patched together 1.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one run to the Redbirds.
Right-hander Cole Cates ended the night on the mound in his Blue Raider debut, striking out ISU's Luke Stulga to end the first of three games at The Reese this weekend.
By the Numbers
9: For the second straight game, all nine MTSU batters recorded a hit.
1: King's spot start in place of Horn earned him his first win in his first start at the Division I level.
4: Four Blue Raiders scored two or more runs, including Minnick, Rogers, O'Neill and Clapp.
The Skipper Speaks (Jerry Meyers)
"Our at-bats in the first three innings were really mature and we didn't get out of doing that the whole game," Meyers said. "Late in the game where a couple relievers came in, we didn't chase out of the zone much, we didn't get too big. We were very productive at times because of that."
Player Perspective (Gavin King)
"All week I prepared to go tomorrow to follow up Chandler Alderman tomorrow, and I got let know that I was starting at about 1:30," King said. "There's really no time to think. You just have to go to work, lace the boots up tight, go out there and compete."
Up next
The Blue Raiders and the Redbirds will be back at it for game two of the series tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. MTSU's Chandler Alderman (1-0, 3.24 ERA) is slated to take the hill, while Illinois State is set to Carson Cormier (0-0, 7.71 ERA).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: King, Gavin (1-1)
L: T. Harper (1-1)
Batting:
2B: B. Bakes 1 ; J. Outlaw 1
3B: B. Zilis 1
HR: B. Bakes 1
RBI: B. Bakes 1
Base Running:
RUNS: B. Bakes 1 ; B. Zilis 1 ; J. Outlaw 1
Batting:
2B: O'Neill, Dean 1 ; Wolfe, Matt 1
HR: Minnick, Tyler 1
RBI: Nowak, Owen 3 ; Minnick, Tyler 2 ; Rogers, Brett 1 ; Clapp, Cooper 1 ; Wolfe, Matt 2 ; Badylak, Clay 2
SH: Clapp, Cooper 1 ; Wolfe, Matt 1
SF: Nowak, Owen 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vondohlen, Brett 1 ; Brewer, Nathan 1 ; Minnick, Tyler 3 ; Rogers, Brett 2 ; O'Neill, Dean 2 ; Clapp, Cooper 2 ; Wolfe, Matt 1 ; Badylak, Clay 1
SB: Clapp, Cooper 2 ; Badylak, Clay 1
HBP: Nowak, Owen 1 ; Badylak, Clay 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
3
H
3
RBI
2
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
LHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
C
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
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Wednesday, July 30
