JONESBORO, Ark. (5/12/09) ? Five Arkansas State pitchers
combined to hold the Murray State Thoroughbreds (30-18-1) to just five hits as
the Red Wolves (21-29) closed out the home portion of the 2009 season with a
4-2 victory over the ?Breds Tuesday night at Tomlinson Stadium and Kell Field.
Sophomore Drew Benes worked six innings to get the win over
the Thoroughbreds. Benes (4-4) gave up
two runs on three hits with one walk and one strikeout on the night. Senior
Nick Lambert, the ASU career appearance leader, made his 100th
appearance on the mound to pick up the save.
Lambert struck out three of the four batters he faced, walked none and
gave up one hit.
“I'm very pleased,” said ASU Head Coach Tommy Raffo. “Obviously, Drew set the tone and we only
issued one walk on the day, so we didn't give any freebies. We clutched up and got a big inning and when
you do that, you are going to win 80 percent of your games. We denied them a big inning and that was a
great effort on our pitching staff to put that together.”
Arkansas State took a 4-0 lead in the third, scoring the
first two runs on a double to right field from third baseman Guy Brown. Center fielder Todd Baumgartner singled to
drive in Brown, stole second and third and scored on a Murray State
throwing error to put ASU's fourth run on the scoreboard.
Murray State scored twice in the fourth to cut
the Red Wolves lead in half, getting an RBI double from left fielder Elliot
Frey, and a sacrifice fly from right fielder Daniel Hill sent the second run
home for the Thoroughbreds. After Murray State
scored its two fourth-inning runs, the Red Wolves did not allow an MSU
baserunner until the Thoroughbreds got one aboard in the eighth and another in
the ninth.
Brown went 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead ASU at the plate,
while center fielder Zach Noonan went 2-for-4 to lead Murray State.
Sophomore Seth McFarlin (1-1) took the loss on the mound for
the Thoroughbreds, giving up four runs on six hits, with two strikeouts and a
walk in two and two-thirds innings on the mound.
The Red Wolves will be back in action Thursday when they
close out the regular season on the road with a three-game Sun Belt Conference
series at Arkansas-Little Rock. The
Thursday and Friday games are scheduled to get underway at 6:00 p.m., with
Friday's regular season finale set for 1:00 p.m.
