UTM BASEBALL BATTLES BUT FALLS TO EVANSVILLE 6-3 IN MIDWEEK CONTEST

Wednesday, April 3

Evansville, Ind.

6:00 PM

UT Martin

11-17

Evansville

15-9

UT Martin

Evansville

UTM BASEBALL BATTLES BUT FALLS TO EVANSVILLE 6-3 IN MIDWEEK CONTEST

4/3/2019 10:31:00 PM | Baseball

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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team battled but fell to Evansville by a 6-3 margin this evening.

UT Martin (11-17) was led at the plate by Ethan Whitley as he notched a two-RBI night on a pair of hits including a long ball. Casey Harford plated a run as he rapped out three hits in the contest. Sean Dixson, Jordan Stoner, Creighton Eldridge and Reid Pope all tallied one base knock apiece on the evening. Eldridge swiped his squad-best seventh base of the season while Billy Edwards stole his first bag of the year. Eldridge also worked to earn a couple of free bases as Stoner and Edwards also notched one walk each.

Freshman righty Seth Petry (1-1) drew the starting nod and tossed 3.1 innings but was tagged with the loss as he conceded a pair of earned runs. He only allowed two hits and a couple of walks while he fanned a pair of Purple Aces in his time on the bump. David Hussey came on for 0.2 inning but was touched up for three earned runs in that span. He did however both of his outs via the punchout. Marcus Eusebio logged two complete innings of baseball as he allowed just one earned run on a base knock but sat down an Evansville batter on strikes. Zach Denney finished out the contest with a pair of scoreless frames on the hill. He gave up just two hits and issued only one free pass while recording a trio of strikeouts in his time toeing the rubber.

The Skyhawks cracked into the scoring column first as Dixson led the game off with a single to right field just before a Harford double down the left field line would bring him home and give UT Martin an early 1-0 lead.

Petry worked around a leadoff walk in the home half of the first inning as he forced a pair of fielder's choice groundballs with a flyout sandwiched in between. He made quick work of the Purple Aces in the second when he found a couple of friendly groundball outs followed by a flyout, respectively, to retire the side in order. Petry fanned the first batter he faced in the third on three straight pitches but allowed the next batter to reach via hit by pitch. He induced a flyball out but issued a free base before recollecting himself to force another groundball out to avoid trouble.

Evansville put up five runs in a pivotal fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead.

Eusebio came on in the fifth and found himself faced with two outs in the frame before conceding an Evansville solo shot to make the score 6-1. He kept his composure though to sit down the next batter on three straight strikes to get out of the inning. He faced little resistance in the sixth inning as he needed just 10 pitches to get through the frame unscathed.

In the seventh, Denney worked around a leadoff single to force a flyout to left field followed by a pair of swinging strikeouts.

UT Martin put up a pair of runs in the eighth inning as Eldridge worked a five-pitch walk just before Whitley swung a heavy bat to send one over the left field wall and make things 6-3.

The Skyhawk rally came up just short in the waning frame of action. Blake Daniels reached base via an error to open the inning followed by a Stoner fielder's choice. Harford then singled through the right side to put a pair of runners on. Both Stoner and Harford would move up a bag on a wild pitch but would remain stranded as the comeback would not be in the cards.

UT Martin heads to Birmingham, Ala. to take on former Ohio Valley Conference opponent Samford this weekend for a three-game series with the Bulldogs. First pitch on Friday, April 5 is slated for 6 p.m. and is to be streamed on ESPN3.