COOKEVILLE, Tenn. –, the Golden Eagles will travel to Martin, Tennessee to take on the UT-Martin Skyhawks for their final Ohio Valley Conference series on the road. Saturday’s twinbill will start at 1:00pm.
As the end of the regular season looms, the in-conference match-ups take on even greater meaning with impending post-season seedings and the conference tournament ahead.
Tech (9-5 OVC/23-22 overall) has swept the last three conference opponents they’ve gone up against, giving them a nine-game win streak headed into this weekend’s contests. The streak has propelled the Golden Eagles to second place (tied for first in the loss column) in the conference, just behind Murray State. Ironically, the Golden Eagles will face off against Murray State in their final regular season series at Bush Stadium next weekend.
The Golden Eagles lead the lifetime series against the Skyhawks 31-14, and batters will face freshman right-hander Alex Boshers, who is 1-3 in the OVC with and 8.39 ERA, to start off the weekend. Senior righty Coty Green (5-1/8.39 ERA in the OVC) and sophomore southpaw Brendan Lozupone (0-2/11.05 ERA in the OVC) will follow in the rotation for the final two games.
The last time the two rivals met in April of 2009, Tech recovered from a 21-5 loss in game one of the double header delivered in part by Martin’s Brendan Lozupone. The Golden Eagles edged out the Skyhawks 1-0 in game two when current senior Tate McMillan went 3-for-3 and hit a walk-off double to end the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Game three ended in another victory for the Golden Eagles, as Chad Oberacker, A.J. Kirby-Jones, Casanova Donaldson and Chad Hayes each had multi-hit games to fuel a hefty 12-6 win.
UT-Martin (7-11 OVC/22-26 overall) are currently 6-5 at home against OVC opponents and will be looking to maintain that winning record this weekend. Tech pitchers, who have yet to be announced, will be going up against a Skyhawk lineup that ranks third in the conference in home runs and includes Ty Nelson, who has the fifth highest batting average in the OVC at .420 and bats .466 against OVC opponents.
