Miami Ohio University Athletics
Miami University
No. 2 Kent State
Eighth Inning Kent State Home Run Sinks RedHawks, 4-3
5/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 24, 2007
YPSILANTI, Mich.--After battling back to tie the game, an eighth-inning home run sunk Miami University's baseball team (32-23) in the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Thursday evening as the No. 4 seed RedHawks fell to the No. 2 seed Kent State University Golden Flashes (31-24), 4-3, at Oestrike Stadium.
Miami will face the No. 5 seed Northern Illinois University Huskies at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 25 in the double-elimination tournament. The loser of that game will be eliminated, while the winner will face the No. 1 Eastern Michigan/No. Kent State winner at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Kent State took a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. With two outs and bases loaded, Jason Patton hit a two-RBI single to right field to score Doug Sanders and Andrew Davis. Brad Winter singled through the left side to plate Patton for the Golden Flashes' third run of the inning.
Junior Evan Armitage and senior Brandon Hillier each hit singles in the first at-bats for the RedHawks to put runners on first and second, but a pop up and a double play left Miami without runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Miami began to surge in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hillier tagged a lead-off single up the middle to get things started for the Red and White. Sophomore Jordan Petraitis doubled off the center field wall to place RedHawk runners on second and third, before senior Jeff Carroll nailed a two-RBI double to left center to plate Petraitis and Hillier and put the RedHawks within one run of the Golden Flashes, 3-2.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Armitage doubled to right center before Hillier singled up the middle in the next at-bat to plate Armitage and knot the score, 3-3.
A lead-off home run down the left field line by Kent State's Greg Rohan in the top of the eighth inning was the game-winning run as the Golden Flashes went on to the 4-3 win.
Hillier accounted for half the RedHawk runs, pacing Miami at the plate with a 4-for-4, one run, one RBI performance.
