Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Western Kentucky
HERD SPLITS DOUBLEHEADER WITH WESTERN KENTUCKY
4/14/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOWLING GREEN, KY-The Thundering Herd baseball team split a doubleheader with Western Kentucky University Friday at Nick Denes Field. Game one ended with a 6-5 Marshall victory, while the Hilltoppers took Game two 6-2.
The split puts The Herd at 15-16 (5-9 C-USA) on the season. WKU is now 16-18 (6-8 C-USA).
Peter Hutzal led the way for Marshall's bats in game one. The second baseman had a team-high two runs and two RBIs, and was tied for the high in hits with two. In game two, Reynaldo Pastrana put on a batting clinic with four hits and an RBI in five at bats. The only time the catcher failed to reach base was in the ninth inning in what was the final out of the game. Geordon Blanton also had a strong performance in the second game with three hits and a run.
Marshall Freshman Chris Fryer earned the first win of his collegiate career to move to 1-1 on the season in the first game. Fryer pitched 2 2/3 innings allowing no hits or runs while striking out four with three walks. In game two Joshua Shapiro picked up the loss to move to 2-2. Shapiro pitched three innings allowing four hits, three runs (two earned), and walking two with no strikeouts.
In game one, The Herd jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Hutzal hit an RBI single to score Will Ray from second base. That lead grew to 2-0 in the top of the third when a little déjàvu took place, with Hutzal hitting an RBI single to score Ray from second base again.
Western Kentucky tied it up in the bottom of the inning with two runs of its own.
In the fifth, an error by the WKU's second baseman allowed Tucker Linder to reach base and get an RBI when Hutzal scored from third unearned. Another run in the sixth came off the bat of Pastrana, who singled to center field to score Shane Hanon, who reached on the first triple of his career, and gave Marshall a 4-2 lead.
The Hilltoppers tied the game back up again in the bottom of the inning with two runs to make the score 4-4.
In the eighth, Kody Matthews hit an RBI single to right field to score Pastrana. Linder singled the very next bat to score Hutzal for the 6-4 lead.
WKU added one run in the ninth, but couldn't make up the deficit and fell 6-5.
In game two, WKU jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Marshall responded in the third with an RBI single by Hanon that scored Blanton, and then a RBI single by Pastrana that scored Andrew Zban for the 2-1 lead.
Those would be the only runs The Herd would score for the rest of the game, as WKU added two runs in the fourth and one run in the sixth for the 6-2 victory.
Marshall finished game one with six runs off of 11 hits with one error. WKU had five runs off six hits with two errors. In game two, The Herd had two runs off 10 hits with three errors, while the Hilltoppers finished with six runs off of eight hits with one error.
Up next, The Herd play a home-and-home series against Ohio University starting Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Kennedy Center Field in Huntington, West Virginia.
