Baseball Routs Middle Tennessee State

Friday, February 26

Murfreesboro, TN

4 PM

Army West Point

2-3

Middle Tennessee State

3-2

Army West Point

Middle Tennessee

Baseball Routs Middle Tennessee State

February 26, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Sophomore left-handed starting pitcher Jeremy Mortensen threw 6.0 shutout innings and the Black Knights' offense scored nine runs on nine base hits in a 9-1 victory for the Army West Point baseball team over Middle Tennessee State on Friday afternoon at Reese Smith Jr. Field.

Stu Schley went 3-for-5, John McCarthy hit two doubles and drove in three runs, while Kris Lindner, Jake Clark, Keegan Vega and Justin Reece each added base hits in the win.

"It was a great team win for us today," head coach Matt Reid said. "It took a lot of guys working hard for nine innings against a very good Middle Tennessee State team."

Mortensen (1-1) struck out seven Middle Tennessee State hitters and allowed three hits and five walks as Army held a 4-0 lead when he handed the game over to the Army bullpen.

The Black Knights (2-3) wasted no time in taking a quick 1-0 lead as the leadoff man Lindner started the game with a base hit off MTSU starter Nate Hoffman. Lindner stole second base before McCarthy drove him home with an RBI double down the left field line.

Army doubled its lead in the third after Lindner reached base when he was hit by a pitch with one out. McCarthy came up two batters later, and after a wild pitch moved Lindner into scoring position, he roped another double into the left centerfield gap to increase the lead to 2-0.

Mortensen's only clean inning was a 1-2-3 fourth as he stranded six Middle Tennessee State baserunners over his six innings of work. He exited the game after Reece's sixth-inning RBI single pushed Army ahead 4-0.

Patrick Gardner entered in the bottom of the seventh and recorded the first two outs before an error helped the Blue Raiders keep the inning alive. A walk and hit batsman loaded the bases, before freshman Eamon Hannan came in and escaped the jam by striking out Brad Jarreau looking to end the seventh.

Army went down in order before the home side broke through in the bottom of the eighth. Kevin Dupree singled and Austin Norrell doubled to put runners on the corners against Hannan, but he was able to limit the threat by allowing one run on a groundout by Vaughn Shapen.

The Black Knights broke the game open by tacking on five insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning. Clark delivered an RBI triple to right to score Josh White, before McCarthy made it 6-1 on a fielder's choice. Schley's RBI single, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Jacob Page finished the scoring for Army.

Army returns to the diamond on Saturday afternoon when it faces Lipscomb in a 3 p.m. ET first pitch.