Life in the Valley

Bruins Walk-off North Alabama; Bears Rally Late to Upend Billikens

Blake Barton’s RBI single in the bottom of the10th scored Ty Allen with the winning run as the Belmont Bruins defeated visiting North Alabama, 5-4, Tuesday. The game featured the “ghost runner” rule familiar to many Major League Baseball fans, where each team starts each extra inning with a runner at 2nd base.

In the North Alabama 10th, that runner got to 3rd base on a wild pitch with 1 out. But Belmont pitcher Trey Maeker struck out Leighton Jenkins for the 2nd out, before a walk put runners on the corners. No worries, however, as Maeker then also fanned pinch-hitter Wes Walker for the final out of the top half of the 10th.

With Belmont up to bat, Allen took his spot at 2nd and then Landon Godsey was intentionally walked to set up a potential double play. After a strikeout, Barton came up and singled home the game-winner to improve Belmont to 2-10 on the season. North Alabama fell to 3-8. Wyatt Fooks scored 2 runs for the Bruins.

Zach Hernandez, Jonathon Van Ness, and Maeker (1-1) combined to throw 5 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just 3 hits with 4 walks and 7 strikeouts.

Belmont is scheduled to host Tennessee Tech this afternoon (4 p.m., ESPN+) before being the 3rd Valley team to play a weekend series at Little Rock starting Friday. The Trojans swept Evansville and were swept by Murray State.

Missouri State 9, Saint Louis 7: Down 7-4 entering the 7th-inning stretch, Missouri State (5-6) rallied for 5 runs in the home half of the 7th and held on for a 9-7 win. Max Knight hit a 2-run homer in the inning for the Bears, one of three hit by Missouri State in the contest. Zack Stewart and Dylan Robertson each had run-scoring doubles in the decisive inning. Caden Bogenpohl and William Zareh also homered for Missouri State.

Kaleb Thomas pitched 2/3rds of an inning to finish the Saint Louis 7th and get the win. Dalen Stewart came on in the 8th and gave up 2 hits, but got 2 strikeouts to shut down the Billikens’ rally and secure the win for his first save of the season. The game was called after 8 innings.

Nick Rodriguez and Curry Sutherland led the Bears offensively with 2 hits each. Missouri State hitters also drew 9 walks and struck out just 4 times.

The Bears look to reach the .500 mark and beyond this weekend with 3 games at a struggling Wichita State. The Shockers are just 3-8 so far on the season. The Shockers, former Valley inhabitants who now reside in the American Athletic Conference, have yet to win a series this season. Wichita State dropped 2 of 3 at McNeese on opening weekend, then lost 3 of 4 at Hawai’i, as well as losing a single game to Chaminade while on the islands. They then dropped 2 of 3 at Cal-State Fullerton last weekend.

Missouri State had been scheduled to play Arkansas State today but that game was canceled.

Purdue 14, Indiana State 4: A red-hot Boilermaker bunch came to Terre Haute on Tuesday and unfortunately for the Sycamores, Indiana State wasn’t able to slow them down as Purdue won in 8 innings, 14-4.

Purdue (12-1) wasted no time, scoring 4 runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings to take an 8-1 lead. Aaron Manias hit a 3-run double in the 1st and a 3-run homer in the 2nd. H elater added a 2-run double in the 8th for an 8-RBI game. Purdue scored 14 runs on 13 hits without getting any hits from Logan Sutter (0-for-3, 2 runs, 2 walks), who entered the game hitting .548. Manias finished 4-for-5 with 3 runs.

Carlos Pena went 2-for-4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBIs for the Sycamores (5-7). Pena is hitting .325 on the season now with 13 RBIs in 12 games. He’s on a 4-game hitting streak, going 6-for-16 (.375) in that span with 4 RBIs.

Indiana State visits Southeast Missouri State this weekend for 3 games before hosting Indiana next Tuesday.

Today’s Valley Menu: A light slate highlighted by undefeated Murray State’s trip to Oxford to take on 17th-ranked Ole Miss. Get thee to your streaming device for that one.

Illinois State at Oral Roberts, 3 p.m. Central
Tennessee Tech at Belmont, 4, ESPN+
Murray State at #17 Mississippi, 4, SECN+

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.