Baseball Ends the Regular Season in Historic Fashion

Saturday, May 18

Ypsilanti, MI

1:00 p.m.

Kent State University

30-22, 17-8

Eastern Michigan University

11-43-1, 6-21

Kent State

Eastern Michigan

Photo by: Scott R. Galvin/Galvin Photo, LLC

Baseball Ends the Regular Season in Historic Fashion

5/18/2019 4:09:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Recording its first shutout and second series sweep of the season, the Kent State baseball team (30-22, 17-8 MAC) concluded the regular season with a 4-0 victory over Eastern Michigan (11-43-1, 6-21 MAC) at Oestrike Stadium Saturday afternoon. The win marked the team's 30^thwin of the season and the 21^stconsecutive season that Kent State has recorded 30 or more wins in a campaign.

"It has been a lot of fun to watch this team come together this season, especially starting out with some adversity early on," Head Coach Jeff Duncan said. "It was one of our goals this season to be united over self and the team is really playing for each other. It has been fun to watch."

Redshirt sophomore Ben Carew led the offense, going 4-for-5 at the plate with a double and a run scored. He improved his batting average to .414 through the regular season and became the first Golden Flash to post a batting average above .400 since John Van Benschoten in 2001. The Appleton, Wis. native is currently on an 18-game hitting streak and he has reached base safely in each of the last 33 games.

"Ben Carew has had an unbelievable regular season," Duncan explained. "It's a testament to his hard work and the guys around him are helping him out. The whole lineup, no matter who we've put in, has been clicking and we want to continue that into the tournament."

The Flashes collected 15 hits on the day, which marks the third consecutive game the team has notched 10 or more hits. Sophomore Michael Turner went 3-for-4 with two RBIs while junior Cam Touchette and redshirt sophomore Kevin Dobos added a pair of hits apiece.

Kent State inflicted damage early, plating a run in each of the second and third innings. Dobos belted an RBI-double off the yellow strip at the top of the wall in left field in the first inning and Turner ripped a single up the middle to score Carew an inning later.

The score remained until the top of the seventh inning when Turner drove in his second run of the day, scoring Touchette with a double to the corner in deep left field.

Kirby rounded out the day's scoring, belting his ninth home run of the season over the wall in left field in the top of the eighth inning.

Freshman Luke Albright dazzled in just his second start of his rookie campaign, spinning five scoreless innings to improve to 4-1. He allowed just three Eagles to reach base with two hits and a walk while fanning six. Freshman Max Rippl added two hitless innings of relief, striking out three, and redshirt senior John Schreiber made his 10^thappearance on the mound, retiring both lefties he faced. Senior Chris Martin closed out the day with 1.1 innings of work, striking out three. The last time Kent State spun a combined two-hitter was at Radford in March 2017.

"We've won 14 out of the last 17 games and that's a great way to finish out the regular season" Duncan added. "Going into the tournament we're playing our best baseball and that's exactly what you want. We have some unfinished business going into the postseason."

With Kent State's win over Eastern Michigan and Miami's loss to Central Michigan Friday afternoon, the Flashes secured the No. 3 seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament set to start Wednesday, May 22 in Avon, Ohio. The Blue and Gold will play the No. 6 seed (either Western Michigan or Ohio, to be determined Saturday afternoon) in the first game of the tournament on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.