Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
In a series showdown for likely the second seed in next week's Region 2 baseball tournament, nothing was decided on Thursday as Murray State split a league twinbill with visiting Western State College.

The Aggies dropped a 7-6 decision in the opener before rebounding to forge the split with an 11-7 triumph. Murray State is now 39-15 overall and remains tied with Western in the standings with identical 23-11 records. They'll decide the pivotal series on Saturday when the Aggies travel to Altus for a doubleheader.

Western took the early lead in game one and left the Aggies to play catch up the rest of the way, even though they finished the contest with an 11-8 edge in hits.

Down 2-0, Murray State got one of those runs back in the second inning on a Patrick McCullough solo home run. The Pioneers notched four in the third stanza to extend the advantage to 6-1.

Murray State narrowed the gap to 6-3 with a pair in its half of the third. Brady Benedict singled and Clay Jung had a double to spur the Aggie charge. McCullough drove in another with a single in the fifth and another Jung double fueled a two-run sixth but couldn't counter a final Western run late in the game.

Jung and McCullough each notched two hits and two RBI while Ashton Inman and Jaxon Gless also pitched in two hits.

Colby Langford was tagged with the pitching defeat as he yielded six runs on eight hits and fanned five in four innings of work. Haeven Cichocki contributed two frames of scoreless relief with Ryan Dugas chipping in one frame in which he allowed one unearned run.

The Aggies took the early lead in the second contest with two tallies in the first frame on Garrett Gruell's home run, but they still trailed 5-2 in the fifth before mounting a massive comeback.

Murray State erupted for three runs in the fifth to begin a flurry of nine unanswered runs that put the victory on ice. Shimkus and Gage Gilchrist each doubled while Benedict, Gruell and Wilbert Espinal all had singles to ignite the comeback bid.

Jung singled home one run in the sixth and they added three more in the seventh thanks in large part to a Gilchrist double, Inman double and Kale Miller's run-scoring single. Espinal also knocked in the team's final run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

Every starter had at least one hit for Murray State, topped by two apiece from Gruell, Gilchrist, Espinal and Inman.

Nathan Darden was the winning hurler in relief as he allowed two runs while scattering two hits and striking out one.