Errors Prove Costly in MAC Tournament Loss

Saturday, May 28

Avon, OH

1:00 PM

Kent State University

43-13

Eastern Michigan University

23-35

Kent State

Eastern Michigan

Errors Prove Costly in MAC Tournament Loss

5/28/2016 8:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

AVON, Ohio – Five errors and some poorly timed walks hurt Kent State (43-13) on Saturday afternoon as they fell 10-5 to Eastern Michigan (23-35) forcing a do-or-die rematch later in the evening.

Luke Burch started off the game with a bang, as he gave the Flashes an early lead on a solo homerun. The Eagles then went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the inning on two solo shots of their own. They tacked on two more, one in the 2^nd on a pair of singles and an error, and one in the 3^rd, this time on base hits, to take a 4-1 lead through three.

Kent State answered back with a two-run 5^th. Josh Hollander and Burch both walked before being sacrificed over by Reilly Hawkins. Zarley Zalewski then singled to bring them both home and bring the lead within a run.

Another solo homerun in the 5^th put Eastern Michigan ahead 5-3 before the Golden Flashes came back and tied things in the 6^th. Dom Iero started the frame with a double and Pete Schuler followed with a triple. Schuler then scored on a ground ball by Hollander.

The game remained knotted at five runs each until the Flashes faltered and gave away a five-run 8^th inning. In the frame, the Eagles did their damage on three walks, a hit batter, an error and two base hits to take the game by a final score of 10-5.

Eli Kraus went 5.0 innings in the start with five runs (four earned), nine hits, one walk and one strikeout. Zach Spangler followed and suffered the loss, going 2.1 innings with one earned run on one hit and one walk while striking out one. Zach Willeman and Eli Martin each threw 0.1 each.

Conner Simonetti had two hits for the third straight time in the tournament while Iero also was 2-for-4.

The two teams will now face each other again in the night game to decide who will go home and who will advance.