Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
ALTUS, Okla. – Murray State raced a big early lead in game one and held off Western State College to win the opener before dropping the nightcap of Saturday's conference baseball twinbill.

In the opener, Murray State posted the 16-11 victory with Western grabbing the second game by a 12-4 count.

The Aggies are now 19-18 overall and 5-12 in conference action with Western moving to 28-11 overall and 13-5 in league play. Next on the slate for Murray State is a trip to Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa for a three-game series that starts at 2 p.m. Friday.

Coach Sam Bjorling's squad fed off the momentum of Friday's season-high offensive explosion to plate five runs in the first stanza and four more in the second to take a commanding 9-0 advantage.

Ethan Rone provided the spark in the opening frame with a bases loaded double that drove in three while Brennan Morgan followed with a two-run homer to right. Rone was at it again in the second, smacking a two-run double with a pair of outs and Morgan again followed by smacking another two RBI roundtripper.

Western answered by getting four runs back in the bottom of the second, but another three-run flurry by Murray in the third inning got almost all those back. Espinal had the key blast with a two-run homer to put the Aggies ahead 12-4.

The Aggies tacked on two runs in the fifth and sixth innings before the Pioneers countered with six tallies over the final two frames.

Rone had a monster game with three hits, including a home run, and drove in a whopping seven runs. Morgan also chipped in three hits with four RBI and Espinal posted three hits and knocked in three. Andrew Tinsley notched two hits with Gage Gilchrist, Austin Haley and Mason Shimkus all adding a hit.

Cash Kuiper was credited with the pitching victory, working five innings in which he yielded eight earned runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Kaleb Melvin tossed in two frames of relief in which he allowed one run on one hit and fanned three.

Western got rolling fast in the second game by scoring seven in the first four stanzas in building a 7-1 lead and never looked back. The Aggies' lone run in that span came via a Brady Richardson solo home run in the third.

The Aggies notched a run in the seventh when Morgan was hit by a pitch and eventually came around to score after a pair of groundouts.

Murray State then wrapped up its scoring with a Rone two-run blast in the eighth.

Murray State had eight hits in the game fueled by two hits and two batted in by Rone as well as two hits and a run scored for Ty Chaddrick. Espinal, Haley, Morgan and Richardson tallied one hit each.

Jakob Blackwell twirled four innings and was tagged with the pitching defeat, yielding seven runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and three walks.