Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
Seven unanswered runs in the final two innings rallied the Murray State baseball team to a conference split with University of Arkansas Rich Mountain Saturday at The Ranch.

The Aggies dropped the opening game of the doubleheader 11-5 and trailed 9-7 in the seventh of game two before responding to up their record to 29-11 overall and 13-7 in league play. Murray State will be back on the road for a four-game series Thursday at conference leading South Arkansas Community College.

In the opener, Murray State spotted the visiting Bucks an early lead and could never recover as Rich Mountain scored at least one run in all but one stanza en route to outhitting the Aggies by a 14-10 count.

Rich Mountain led 3-0 in the second inning when the Aggies got on the board for the first time on a Brady Benedict two-out RBI double. They added another run on Wilbert Espinal's solo home run.

Murray State trailed 8-2 in the sixth, putting together a three-run flurry to narrow the gap but couldn't get any closer. Jaxon Gless had the key blow with a RBI double as Trace Necessary and Benedict chipped in singles.

Will Ellis was tagged with the mound loss, yielding five runs (four earned) on nine hits and struck out seven over five innings.

Espinal tallied three of the Aggies' 10 hits while Gless and Benedict notched two apiece. Clay Jung, Necessary and Ashton Inman all ended with one hit.

The Aggies built a 5-2 advantage in game two, spurred by Necessary's two-run first inning single and RBI hits from Jung, Garrett Gruell and Gage Gilchrist in the second inning. Rich Mountain rallied however, taking a 9-7 edge in the seventh.

Murray State cut the margin in half when Gruell singled and scored on an Espinal double, cutting the deficit to 9-8 heading to the eighth stanza when the Aggies put together a six-run outburst.

Singles by Gless and Benedict opened the eighth inning comeback before a Gilchrist sacrifice fly to tie things and moments later Espinal snagged the lead for Murray State on a run-scoring single. Patrick McCullough and Inman each contributed RBI hits before the frame was over.

Nathan Darden picked up the pitching win with two innings of relief in which he allowed one run on three hits and fanned two before Tyler Zylstra came on for the final three outs in the ninth.

The Aggies racked up 16 hits in the game, topped by three apiece from Gruell and Necessary. Gilchrist, Espinal and Gless all added two hits with Jung, McCullough, Inman and Benedict each tossing in one hit.