Marshall University Athletics
Baseball Plays to 8-8 Tie Against WVU
10/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.-- Marshall baseball played to an 8-8, 10-inning tie on Sunday against West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va., to conclude its fall exhibition schedule.
Senior TJ Diffenderfer (Mount Juliet, Tenn.) went 2-for-5 with a double and three RBI, and newcomers Austin Norman (Fairmont, W.Va.) and Ryne Dean (Fresno, Ca.) each collected two hits; Norman knocked a double and scored twice. Senior Andrew Dundon (Lincoln Park, N.J.) also collected three RBI in the contest.
"It was great to play our in-state rivals in the fall," head coach Jeff Waggoner began. "I thought we showed a lot of promise, to come down from 5-0 and take the lead, shows a good sign for this upcoming season. We're going to look at film this week and note things we can improve on, but it was great to get out and play and get some work in this fall. That can only help us for this spring."
The Herd began trailing by five runs in the first inning, but chipped away the Mountaineers' lead, scoring two runs in the fourth inning, five in the seventh, and one in the ninth.
Marshall came to life in the top of the fourth, after a Dean single brought a runner aboard and Diffenderfer smacked a double to left field to put the Herd on the board, adding another run off a groundout RBI from freshman Chad Roberts (Wilmington, Ohio).
The Mountaineers added a run in the fifth off a homerun from senior Taylor Munden.
MU took the lead in the seventh, after sophomore Spencer Iacovone (Cincinnati, Ohio) boarded off a single, took second on another single, and scored off a single up the gap from Norman. Three batters later, a ball up the middle from Dundon brought two more Herd runs across, and Diffenderfer capped off the inning with a perfectly placed ball to right center to plate another two runs for Marshall.
Norman scored again in the ninth inning, but two WVU runs from a Shaun Corso double to left center evened the game at eight runs apiece.
Redshirt junior Keanu Ramos (Lubbock, Texas) and redshirt senior Kolin Stanley (Beloit, Ohio) each faced just one batter, fanning both. Newcomer Callaway Kirkpatrick (Aledo, Texas) faced the inning minimum in his outing, allowing no hits and striking out one.
The Herd will open its 2015 season in mid-February.
