Published: February 26, 2008 01:23 pm         

Eagle baseball beats Tennessee, 4-1

Win in series at Knoxville helps usher in Jay Sorg era; OVC tabs Eagles 9th

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Morehead State Baseball Eagles scored four runs after two were out in the top of the eighth inning and rallied for a 4-1 win over Tennessee Saturday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, giving first-year MSU Coach Jay Sorg his first college win.

Tennessee ended up winning the season-opening series for both teams two-games-to-one, capturing Friday’s contest 9-4 and Sunday’s game 8-4.

On Saturday, Tennessee took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the bottom of the third inning. Starting pitchers Nick Hernandez of UT and Josh Schneider of MSU were both outstanding. Hernandez pitched seven and a third innings, allowing only three hits and one earned un. Schneider, making his first collegiate start, went four and two-thirds innings and scattered five hits and did not allow an earned run.

MSU relievers Michael Fahs, Michael Bottoms and Quentin Morgan pitched four and a third shutout innings. Bottoms (1-0) got the win, Morgan picked up the save. Tennessee reliever Aaron Everett (0-1) took the loss.

"There's no question about it, we won this game today because of our pitching staff," Sorg said. "I'm extremely proud of Josh Schneider and of our entire staff.

"It doesn't matter who you get your first win of the season against, it's just important to get it and get it as soon as possible. This will really give our kids some confidence. We battled hard. I'm also proud of our hitters. We hit a lot of balls hard but right at people in the early innings, but we stayed with it and had some key at bats and got some key hits with two outs."

In the deciding eighth inning, MSU got an RBI double from Drew Lee to tie the score. Eric Allen then gave the Eagles a 3-1 lead with his second hit of the game, a two-run double. Allen then scored on a single by Bottoms.

Morgan hit a batter and gave up a single, but pitched out of trouble in the ninth inning to earn the save.

MSU picked 9th in preseason OVC poll

NASHVILLE -- In a vote of Ohio Valley Conference head baseball coaches, Jacksonville State was picked as the 2008 preseason favorite in the 10-team league. The Gamecocks finished second in both the regular season and tournament last season. In additional voting, JSU senior outfielder Clay Whittemore was picked as the Preseason Player of the Year while Eastern Kentucky junior left-handed pitcher Christian Friedrich was named the Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

The overall voting for the preseason poll was balanced and close, as three teams received first-place votes and only two points separated the favorite, Jacksonville State, from second-place, defending champion Austin Peay. Jacksonville State received four of the first-place votes and 76 total points, which put them ahead of the Governors, who actually received one more first-place vote (5 in total) but finished two points behind the Gamecocks in their overall points total (74). Eastern Kentucky received the other first place vote and was predicted to finish third (61 points). The Colonels were followed closely by Southeast Missouri State, who was picked fourth (59), and Samford, who was predicted to place fifth (55). Eastern Illinois was tabbed sixth (38), followed by Murray State in seventh (30), Tennessee Tech in eighth (29), Morehead State in ninth (15) and Tennessee-Martin in 10th (13).

Morehead State begins the 2008 season with a new coach, Jay Sorg. But Sorg is very familiar with the Eagles program and the Ohio Valley Conference, as he played three seasons of baseball at MSU (1992-94) before being drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 15th round of the 1994 First-Year Player Draft. He helped lead the Eagles to the 1993 OVC Tournament Championship (the program’s last title) and a year later he served as the team’s captain on his way to first-team All-OVC honors. He has also served as a minor league instructor and manager, including being the youngest manager in the nation (26) when he served as the Clinton (Iowa) skipper. This season he has 18 returning letterwinners and 12 newcomers to work with. That group includes sophomore middle infielder Drew Lee who had an impressive OVC debut last season, hitting a team-high .362 with 46 hits, 33 runs, three home runs and 23 RBI. Also back is junior outfielder Trent Hanna who hit .345 with 51 hits, 32 runs, 10 doubles, 27 RBI and nine stolen bases last season. The Eagles did lose their top pitcher from last season (Henry Mabee) but return No. 2 starter Tyler Bess, who won a pair of games last season, tossed two complete games and saved another contest in 18 appearances.