All-Around Effort Hands Baseball 13-3 Win

Friday, April 15

Ypsilanti, MI

6:00 PM

Kent State University

24-10, 0

Eastern Michigan University

13-18, 0

Kent State

Eastern Michigan

Photo by: David Dermer

4/15/2016 10:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Kent State (24-10, 7-3) excelled from both sides of the plate Friday night as the team put together a 13-3 victory to start the series at Eastern Michigan (13-18, 5-2).

Every player in the starting lineup had a hit for the second straight game and the fourth time in the past eight contests. On the mound, Eric Lauer dropped his season ERA to 0.90 and in-conference ERA to 0.33 as he was perfect through the first four frames.

The Flashes wasted no time starting their hard-hitting day. Luke Burch led off with a double, Mason Mamarella followed with a bunt single before Zarley Zalewski got the scoring started with a base hit. A Conner Simonetti RBI single then made it a 2-0 game.

More damage came in the 4^th, when Sam Hurt singled, was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Reilly Hawkins and then moved to third when Burch singled. After Mamarella walked to load the bases, Zalewski moved all runners one spot on a RBI base hit. Dylan Rosa did the same during the next at-bat, moving all runners around on a single to left. A Simonetti single then scored to more to put the Flashes up 6-0 through four.

The biggest inning for the team came in a five-run 5^th. Hurt got things started again with a walk before Hawkins tripled down the line before scoring himself on a wild pitch. Three consecutive walks allowed an easy RBI for Rosa as he also was served up a base on balls. A sacrifice fly by Simonetti scored another before Dom Iero singled through the right side to put the Kent State lead at 11-0.

Two big swings sent two Flashes home in the 7^th as Rosa led off with a double and Simonetti cracked a long ball over the fence in left center.

Eastern Michigan scored an unearned run in the 6^th on a pair of errors, hit a solo shot in the 7^th, then hit a triple and scored on a passed ball in the 8^th to account for the Eagles scoring on the night.

Lauer finished with just two hits through six innings, with the second not leaving the infield. He did not allow an earned run, walked one and struck out seven. Joey Murray had a good performance to follow him, giving up one earned run and three hits while striking out four in the final 3.0 innings.

Burch was a pest from the leadoff spot, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, three walks and three stolen bases. Zalewski also had three hits with a double and walks with two RBI. Simonetti led the team with five RBI as he finished 3-for-5. Rosa contributed with two hits.

The teams will meet again in a 3 p.m. game on Saturday.