EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The visiting Eastern Michigan baseball team scored two two-out runs in the top of the fifth inning Friday to grab a lead it would never lose, as the Eagles rallied for a 5-2 victory over the University of Evansville Purple Aces at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
Reigning Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Matt Kirk produced a two-out RBI double to the wall in right-center field in the fifth inning to tie the score at 2-2 for Eastern Michigan. He then scored on a two-out single to right by first baseman Darren Kraft to give EMU a 3-2 lead. The Eagles would add a two-run home run in the eighth inning by DH Josh Kross, before holding off a late UE rally in the ninth inning to win.
"I just felt like it was an uninspired performance today by our offense," said UE head coach Wes Carroll. "I thought that Nick Smith pitched pretty well for us today, and I thought that our defense made some good plays, but we needed some guys to step up offensively for us, and we really didn't have that outside of Ben Stuart, who had a great game. But, credit their two pitchers. I thought they did a tremendous job of controlling at-bats. We just have to try and bounce back tomorrow."
Stuart was the lone bright spot on Friday for Evansville offensively, as he produced two of UE's three hits, and drove in UE's first run of the contest with a two-out RBI single in the second inning. Kirk and Kross both had two-hit games for Eastern Michigan.
Junior RHP Nick Smith (0-2) was the tough-luck loser for Evansville, as he scattered three runs on five hits in 5.0 innings of work, while striking out six. Reliever Luke Russo (1-0) earned the win for EMU by tossing 4.1 innings of scoreless, hitless relief, while striking out six. He did have to escape a ninth-inning jam, as he walked the first two hitters of the inning to bring the tying run to home plate, but he was able to record back-to-back strikeouts and a ground out to end the contest.
The two teams will continue the series on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. contest that can be seen live on ESPN3. Senior Tyler Denu (0-0, 5.79 ERA) will take the mound for Evansville (0-5), trying to get the Aces their first win of 2023. Eastern Michigan (2-2) has not announced a starter yet for Saturday's contest.
