Eagles Walk Off Flashes in Series Opener

Friday, May 28

Ypsilanti, MI

5:00 PM

Kent State University

27-25, 20-17

Eastern Michigan University

21-27, 15-22

Kent State

Eastern Michigan

5/28/2021 7:41:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

YPSILANTI, MI- A back-and-forth game on Friday night swung in favor of Eastern Michigan in dramatic fashion as Taylor Hopkins' two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth gave the Eagles a 5-4 victory on Friday night.

The Flashes had scored in the eighth and again in the ninth to tie and then take the lead on the back of a Sam Thompson sacrifice fly and a Ben Carew base hit.

Kent State scored first in the opener, plating a pair in the second. Michael McNamara homered for the second straight game, sending the first pitch he saw over the left field wall. Thompson drove in the first of his two runs on the day, singling home Justin Kirby who had doubled the at-bat prior. Eastern tied it an inning later, taking advantage of three walks with a bases-loaded single scoring two. The Eagles grabbed their first lead in the fifth, manufacturing a run off a hit batter, steal and a single.

It stayed 3-2 Eagles until the eighth when the Flashes were able to tie it up. McNamara worked a one-out walk and went to third on a Kirby double, his third hit of the game. McNamara scored on Thompson's sacrifice fly, narrowly beating the throw home. Kent State retook the lead in the ninth with Carew blooping in a single to score pinch hitter Eric Wentz, giving Kent State a 4-3 lead. That setup the dramatics in the bottom of the night, after a lead off single, a sacrifice and a ground out, Hopkins sent a 0-1 pitch into the night sky and over the right field wall, just inside the foul pole.

The loss spoiled a solid outing by Collin Romel, who went six and two-thirds allowing three runs on four hits while striking out six. Kent State now sits 27-26 on the season and 20-17 in the MAC. Eastern snapped a seven-game losing streak and improved to 21-27 overall and 15-22 in the MAC. The two teams will meet for a pair of seven-inning games tomorrow starting at 3 p.m.