Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
After cruising to victory in Friday's opener, the Murray State Aggie baseball team found the going much tougher in game two as they settled for a doubleheader split with Vernon College at The Ranch.

The Aggies rolled to the 12-3 win but couldn't slow the Chaparral bats in a 17-12 loss in the second contest.

Now 13-8 on the year, Murray State returns to action on Monday with a twinbill on the road at Dallas College Brookhaven starting at 1 p.m.

Coach Sam Bjorling's club jumped out to the big early advantage in the first outing, taking a 5-0 advantage through two stanzas.

Brady Richardson's single was the lone Aggie hit in a two-run first as the hosts capitalized on four free passes. It was much the same story in the second as Murray State plated three runs with just a Junho Son single coupled with five walks.

Vernon narrowed the gap with three tallies off Murray ace Cash Kuiper in the third before the standout righthander slammed the door and shut down the visitors in the fourth as well to complete his outing for the win. He yielded four hits, struck out two and walked four. Jakob Holzer was also fantastic with three scoreless frames of four-hit relief, adding a pair of strikeouts.

The Aggies got one run back in the bottom of the third following singles by Marlon Moore, Son and Michael Barham, but it was a six-run fifth inning uprising that put it completely out of reach.

Richardson and Austin Haley started things with hits but it was a two-run double from Grayson Doggett that did the bulk of the damage.

Son had three hits, Richardson added two with one apiece from Haley, Barham, Doggett and Moore.

Game two looked like it might be a similar story as the first after Murray State raced to a 4-0 cushion through just one stanza. Son singled and raced around to score on a Richardson triple. A couple of hit batsmen and Vernon error extended the inning prior to a RBI single by Tanner Norman.

Vernon however responded with six runs on five hits in the top of the third and the shootout was on.

Murray State responded by plating two in the third, two in the fourth and two more in the fifth inning.

Three hit batters and singles by Brennan Morgan and Doggett pushed in the first two while a Haley single proved to be the lone hit. Moore's triple and run scored capped the fifth inning flurry.

Vernon batted completely through the lineup in the seventh frame to snag a 15-10 cushion following an eight-run explosion that was aided by four free passes and an Aggie error.  Son answered with a two-run homer in its half of the stanza but that proved to be all the scoring for Murray State for the rest of the game.

The Aggies tallied 10 hits, keyed by Son and Richardson with two hits apiece. Haley, Barham, Norman, Doggett and Moore added one each.

Five Murray State hurlers combined to strike out 10 but also yielded 17 runs on 16 hits in the nine-inning affair.