Marshall Baseball Takes Series Opener Over Arkansas State

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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University Baseball team (7-14, 1-3 Sun Belt) picked up its first Sun Belt Conference win of 2024 in a 6-2 triumph over the Arkansas State Red Wolves (13-11, 1-3 Sun Belt) Friday night at Jack Cook Field.

"Conference 'W' is the first one and it was certainly a good one to get," Herd Baseball head coach Greg Beals said after the win. "We got good starting pitching from Drew Harlow. I thought the home run by Ferraro in the first inning was critical. It allows your staring pitcher to settle in a little bit. He's pitching with the lead right away."

Gio Ferraro registered his fourth multi-RBI game of the season with Elijah Vogelsong recording his second. Vogelsong has been swing a hot bat with hits in five of his last seven games, with two multi-hit contests. The junior has also reached base in six of those seven contests.

"I just stuck with my approach," Vogelsong said about his success at the plate the last few games. "It's baseball. You're going to fail. Stuff is going to happen. You're going to have times where you don't get a hit, but I've trusted in what the coaches have been doing with us and staying with the approach I've always had."

The Herd wasted little time getting on the board. After starting pitcher Drew Harlow struck out the side in the top of the first, Calin Smith drew a lead-off walk to start the bottom half of the inning. One batter later Gio Ferraro launched his first homer of the year to left field to make it 2-0 Marshall.

Then in the second Owen Ayers stepped to the plate with two outs as AJ Havrilla stood at second and Kebler Peralta at first. Ayers forced a nine-pitch at bat and singled through the right side to score Havrilla and make it 3-0.

The bottom of the fourth featured a two-out Marshall rally. Smith was hit by a pitch, as Ayers and Ferraro each drew walks to load the bags. Smith crossed home thanks to a Red Wolves balk. Vogelsong followed with a triple down the right-field line to bring home Ayers and Ferraro to bring The Herd's advantage to 6-0.

Harlow finished with a quality start going 6.0 innings of one run baseball allowing five hits and a walk while striking out eight to earn his third win of the season.

Reliever Peyton Schofield hurled a scoreless 1.1 innings as Nicholas Weyrich struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.

UP NEXT
Marshall looks to capture the series on Saturday in game two against A-State at 3 p.m.

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---HerdZone.com---

Marshall Baseball Takes Series Opener Over Arkansas State

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Team Stats

Owen Ayers

Gio Ferraro

Elijah Vogelsong

Tre Hondras

Players Mentioned

Owen Ayers

Gio Ferraro

Drew Harlow

AJ Havrilla

Kebler Peralta

Peyton Schofield

Calin Smith

Elijah Vogelsong

Nicholas Weyrich

Marshall University Athletics