CULUMOVIC & HARFORD DELIVER BACK-TO-BACK DINGERS DURING SKYHAWKS’ MIDWEEK VISIT TO MISSISSIPPI STATE

Tuesday, April 5

Starkville, Miss.

6 p.m.

UT Martin

8-18

Mississippi State

18-12

UT Martin

Mississippi State

CULUMOVIC & HARFORD DELIVER BACK-TO-BACK DINGERS DURING SKYHAWKS’ MIDWEEK VISIT TO MISSISSIPPI STATE

4/5/2022 8:58:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score PDF BOX SCORE

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Boosting their 2022 collection of home runs to 21 in consecutive swings across the top of the 3^rd inning, designated hitter Jack Culumovic and senior shortstop Casey Harford provided the biggest highlights for the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team on Tuesday night, facing a blistering Mississippi State offense in a 13-2 decision that favored the Bulldogs.

In the final stop of the Skyhawks' five-game road trip before returning to the Volunteer State this weekend, the navy and orange landed six hits from five different jerseys once all was said and done, included an additional base-hit from Harford in the top of the 6^th that wrapped up a 2-of-3 day for the infielder.

Alongside the two straight bombs from UTM's second and third batters in the lineup – the second of the spring for Culumovic and fourth of the semester by Harford to match the highest number on the roster – Will Smith, Alec Beaman, and Nate Self all put themselves on base with singles scattered throughout the non-conference contest.

Now displaying 196 hits as a whole since February, the Skyhawks tallied at least one connection in four of the game's seven innings versus a Southeastern Conference foe that had just defeated the second-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks in a 12-inning marathon on the road 48 hours earlier. Altogether, UT Martin gathered 27 hits over the course of their last five meetings away from home, where they will return on Friday for a three-game set against OVC rival Austin Peay.

Freshman RHP Noah Walters was granted the starting role at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, seeing relief from the quartet of fellow first-year hurler J. Henry Hobson, junior Seth Petry, senior Blake Davis, and redshirt-freshman Baylor Jones. Together, that group has now pitched 85 innings over the first 26 games of the year.

Turning their attention to OVC series #3 on Friday, the Skyhawks will welcome an Austin Peay squad that also traveled to an SEC powerhouse this evening, as the Governors took on the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville. Having defeated AP 20 times on their home turf since becoming league opponents, UTM will await first pitch from Skyhawk Field at 5:00 in Game 1.