Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
It was a rough outing for Murray State pitching on Saturday as the Aggies yielded runs in all but three innings all day, suffering a pair of baseball losses at Western Oklahoma State College.

The host Pioneers wrapped up the second seed in next week's Region 2 tournament in Enid while Murray State slipped to 39-17 to end the regular season as Western came up with 9-4 and 19-3 triumphs. The Aggies must wait to see if they wrap up in the third or fourth seed for the tournament that begins on Thursday.

In the opener, Murray State scored the initial two runs of the game but was unable to withstand the Pioneer surge that answered with three tallies in the bottom of the stanza and another four in the third before the Aggies could plate another run.

Wilbert Espinal's two-run homer accounted for the first inning runs but they managed just a lone single over the next three stanzas until Jaxon Gless' leadoff home run. A Gless double in the seventh proved instrumental in the Aggies' final run of the contest as he finished with two of the club's six hits in the game. Espinal also tallied two hits with Garrett Gruell and Gage Gilchrist posting one apiece.

Brody Roe was the first of a trio of Murray State pitchers and was saddled with the mound loss, allowing seven runs on four hits in three frames of work.

Murray State took the early lead in game two as well on a Gruell two-run homer following a Clay Jung double but the advantage was short lived against the red-hot Western bats as the Pioneers pushed across tallies in every inning.

Down 4-2 in the second stanza, the Aggies notched their final run, loading the bases on a hit batter and singles from Mason Shimkus and Brady Benedict ahead of a Jung sacrifice fly RBI.

Western finished with a 14-7 cushion in hits as Ashton Inman topped Murray's offense as the only player with a multi-hit game. Jung, Gruell, Espinal, Shimkus and Benedict finished with one hit each.

Javarian Roquemore was charged with the pitching loss, yielding seven runs on four hits in an inning and two-thirds.