Flashes One-Hit Coppin State in 11-1 Win

Sunday, February 23

Rock Hill, SC

11:00 AM

Kent State University

5-2

Coppin State University

0-3

Coppin State

KENT STATE

2/23/2014 2:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Freshman Eric Lauer and Andy Ravel fired a no-hitter through seven innings to lead Kent State (5-2) to an 11-1 victory over Coppin State (0-4) on Sunday afternoon (Feb 23).

Lauer (2-0) earned the win as the starter, his second victory in as many appearances, throwing five shutout, hitless innings with one walk and three strikeouts. Ravel followed him with two innings of relief allowing one run with one walk and two strikeouts.

"Eric Lauer had another nice outing," said Head Coach Jeff Duncan. "His fastball was good all day along with a slider for a strike. Andy Ravel threw two innings and looked good. He commanded two pitches for a strike, fastball and slider."

Offensively, the Golden Flashes posted four runs in the bottom of the first to jump out to an early, deciding lead. The inning began with a strikeout, but batter Sawyer Polen was able to reach on a passed ball and stole second base. Justin Wagler then was hit by a pitch and the two runners pulled off a double steal followed by a walk by Alex Miklos to load the bases. Zarley Zalewski then grabbed the first RBI of the day with a single to left field, before Cody Koch hit a fielder's choice to score another.

Later in the inning, Miklos was able to score the team's third run on a wild pitch and Koch came home to score on a double by Jon Wilson to make it a 4-0 game after one.

Kent State added on two more runs in the 3^rd thanks to some Coppin State mistakes. Koch walked and advanced all the way to third on a passed ball before coming home on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Revesz. Wilson then got on base via a bunt single and moved to second on another error before stealing third. He came home on the second error of the inning that allowed Curtis Olvey to get on base, making the Golden Flashes' lead 6-0.

Another Kent State run came in in the bottom of the 4^th after a Polen walk, stolen base and a RBI ground out by Miklos. They added another in the next frame when Zach Beckner singled as a pinch-hitter, scoring Olvey who had reached earlier on a fielder's choice.

Coppin State broke the shutout in the 6^th off a walk, wild pitch and back-to-back groundouts. They picked up their only hit on the day with a single in the 8^th inning.

Leading 8-1 going into the bottom of the 8^th, the Golden Flashes decided to do some more damage, plating three runs in the frame. Four consecutive base hits by Wagler, Troy Summers, Zalewski and T.J. Sutton started things off. Revesz then picked up an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with bases loaded. The team's 11^th and final run came on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Olvey.

Adding to Kent State's dominant pitching performance of the day, Tim Faix came in in the top of the 9^th and threw 13 pitches, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to close the door on the weekend series.

Zalewski had a big day at the plate, finishing 4-for-5 with a RBI and run scored. Wilson was the only other Golden Flash with a multiple hit day, going 2-for-5 with the game's only extra-base hit. The team also made the most of six errors from Coppin State.

"I personally didn't think we did a good job at the plate as a whole," Duncan said, "but we capitalized on some mistakes Coppin State made."

Kent State heads to Middle Tennessee State next weekend for a three-game series beginning Friday (Feb. 28) at 3:00pm.