By Brandon Burke, UT Martin Sports Information Intern
MARTIN, Tenn.
Game 1
Limiting a balanced Austin Peay lineup to a scoreless output through the first six innings of Friday evening’s series opener at Skyhawk Field, the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team maintained a 1-0 advantage on the Governors for the majority of the Game 1 contest before ultimately taking the defeat by a 5-2 margin.
Scoring the bout’s first run in the bottom of the 3rd before duplicating that in the final frame as the bottom of the order valiantly attempted to rally from a four-run deficit, UTM (8-19, 1-6 OVC) matched APSU in the hits department on Friday by notching eight connections, aided on the other side of the field from a tremendous pitching performance by junior Seth Petry.
Tossing the first six innings and only allowing three hits, Petry and the rest of the Skyhawk defense kept countering the Governors’ swings to keep them at bay and retain possession of the lead, a 1-0 deficit that was gained off the bat of senior shortstop Casey Harford in the opening half of the outing.
With designated hitter Jack Culumovic and leftfielder Will Smith already occupying two bases in the 3rd stanza, Harford’s single up the middle provided the avenue for the latter to find home plate, a lead that the Skyhawks would keep ahold of for the next 14 Austin Peay batters.
Following the 19th RBI of the season for Harford – a statistic that leads all other UTM players since February – the pitching work of Petry and solid outfield projection ensured the lead stayed where it began. Of Petry’s 83 pitches in the third league opener of 2022, 61 of them landed in the strike zone, continually frustrating the majority of the visitors’ trips to the plate.
Once APSU managed to find a crease and take the lead for the first time, the catcher/third-baseman combo of Chance Merithew and Nate Self gave the Skyhawks the momentum back in the 9th, where the former scored his sixth run of the semester on an RBI-ground out from centerfielder Reid Halfacre.
Unfortunately for UTM, that’s where the flurry came to a close in the first of three matchups against the Governors over a three-day period. Baylor Jones and Trey Ricko stepped onto the mound to finish out the final 2.2 innings of play, as seven different Skyhawks tallied at least one hit in the tight loss.
Game 2
A deep two-run blast from redshirt-freshman Chance Merithew in the bottom of the 6th – the third extra-base hit of the day from the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team – coupled by another added score in the 9th inning increased UTM’s run accumulation over the past two days to five. In the end, the Governors of Austin Peay came away with a 14-3 victory in Saturday’s second chapter of an Ohio Valley Conference weekend series at Skyhawk Field.
Merithew’s 6th-inning double – coming after an Ethan Whitley walk and base-hit by rightfielder Wil LaFollette – granted the catcher his third and fourth RBI of the season in his 14th start. Joining Whitley and designated hitter Jack Culumovic as the three Skyhawks to provide a double in Game 2 (giving the team 43 doubles as a unit since February), UTM was able to record eight hits as a group for the second straight meeting off of seven different batters.
Securing a 9th-inning run for the second time in less than 24 hours, the Skyhawks pulled in their third score of the contest off the bat of shortstop Casey Harford, herding in lead-off leftfielder Will Smith on an infield bouncer. Through 28 appearances this spring, UT Martin has scattered 212 hits, including 16 over the past two trips.
In addition to four walks off the APSU pitching core, the Skyhawks would unfortunately leave 10 runners stranded in defeat to move their overall record to 8-20 and 1-7 in OVC matchups.
Junior lefty Jacob Smith took the starting role in the warmer and sunnier afternoon as opposed to the previous day’s cloudy and chilly atmosphere, finding relief from J. Henry Hobson, Noah Walters, Warren Lee, Grant Crihfield, and Drew Bell, the latter two seeing their collegiate debuts over the final two innings while denying the Governors any scores over their final eight hitters.
Game 3
A furious 8th and 9th-inning rally from the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team – a sequence which included 16 at-bats, two doubles, a triple, and a solo home run to right center – almost granted the Skyhawks a stunning comeback on Sunday afternoon after facing an eight-run hole in the final stanza. Despite the late-game UTM avalanche, the Austin Peay Governors would escape Game 3 with a nervous victory, completely flipping a defensive-minded first half into a 12-10 final decision that finished off an Ohio Valley Conference sweep.
Nearly everyone with a bat in their hands contributed in some way to the Skyhawks’ turbulent recuperation over the final two innings, greatly expanding upon a two-run spurt in the bottom of the 4th frame that kicked off the afternoon’s tidal wave of hits and scores. Altogether, both sides added up for 27 connections at the plate in a wild contrast to how this conference set began two days ago and over the first six innings of Sunday’s finale.
Things may have wrapped up with a run extravaganza, although UTM starting pitcher Matt Dickey ensured the prelude wouldn’t go in that direction, piling up an individual season-best eight strikeouts out of 21 batters faced, canning six of his first nine hitters en route to an ultra-effective six-inning stint on the mound.
Holding a Governors lineup that had erupted for 21 hits the previous day to zeros on the scoreboard over the first five innings, Dickey and the rest of the Skyhawk defense enacted a sensational reset in their pursuit of a Game 3 win. Thanks to an RBI-single from centerfielder Reid Halfacre and a walk with the bases juiced in the 4th, UTM was well on their way to accomplishing that goal with a 2-0 lead.
Suddenly finding themselves trailing by four approaching the bottom of the 8th, the lightbulb would appear over the Skyhawks’ heads with a two-inning sequence the likes of which hadn’t been seen in 2022. After Wil LaFollette launched a double down the first-base line and Alec Beaman was struck by a pitch, sophomore Nate Self flung arguably the biggest hit of his collegiate career with a two-RBI triple to whittle the lead down to a deuce.
It looked as if Austin Peay had done enough to distance themselves in their next turn with a six-inning eruption in the top of the 9th, although the navy and orange responded by advancing through their entire order in one sitting across the final chapter, started by a solo homer from lead-off man Will Smith, the seventh shot past the wall of the second-year player’s career.
The rally was only just beginning for head coach Ryan Jenkins’ club, as pinch hitter Blaze Bell – appearing for the first time since February 26 – catapulted a centerfield double that bounced off the wall, bringing home Ethan Whitley and Casey Harford.
Only minutes later, Bell came back around the diamond alongside LaFollette – the third run of the afternoon for the latter – after the team’s fourth double of the day from catcher Cameron Brady that trimmed the once-overwhelming lead down to three.
It got even more nerve-wracking for the Governors in a hurry once Brady escalated the run count to double digits on an RBI-ground out, although the exuberant comeback attempt would end there to finish off at 12-10.
Halfacre, Self, Brady, and Bell loaded up for eight RBI amongst themselves with two apiece near the bottom of the Skyhawks’ order, where LaFollette wrapped up his day with a powerful three hits and three runs while boosting his team-best doubles total to eight on the year.
Now boasting 72 extra-base hits this spring after six more of them today, UT Martin exits the weekend with a record of 8-21 after coming ever so close to stealing a W from Austin Peay in the series climax.
Tucker Reed, Blake Davis, Baylor Jones, and Trey Ricko threw the last three frames of the tight loss, where the Skyhawks will now set their sights to another sequence of road meetings that will begin 48 hours from now.
Making the short drive to Jackson, Tenn. on Tuesday for a one-and-done with Union University, UTM returns to OVC competition two days later in another quick trip to Murray State, beginning that three-game series a day early to account for the Easter holiday. Dealing with the Bulldogs before the Racers, first pitch against Union on April 12th is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information