March 24, 2010
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
OXFORD, Ohio - A day after getting knocked off by the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, the Miami University baseball team responded with a balanced effort to earn a split of the mid-week series with EKU, winning 11-3 Wednesday night at McKie Field at Hayden Park.
On Tuesday, the Colonels (8-11) defeated the RedHawks (9-10) 7-3 in Richmond, Ky. The two sides have now met 10 times in the last five years, playing one game at each campus each season, and the home team has won all but once (a 6-2 Miami win at EKU in 2007). The all-time series is now even again (11-11), as well.
"It's nice to bounce back. For some reason, we've had two or three games where we've been a little bit flat," Miami head coach Dan Simonds said. "We've got to play better and it was nice to come out tonight and see us play better in all phases of our game, especially at the plate."
Eight of nine RedHawks recorded a hit, including five with multi-hit games, led by senior left fielder Zak Hatfield (Fort Wayne, Ind.), who went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and three runs scored and sophomore designated hitter Jordan Jankowski (McMurray, Pa.), who clubbed his third home run of 2010 and added a double while scoring a career-high four runs and driving in two. Junior infielders Jon Edgington (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Kyle Weldon (Mason, Ohio) each had a pair of hits and three RBI, as well, for Miami, who out-hit the Eastern Kentucky, 14-10.
EKU third baseman Jayson Langfels and catcher Joey Stevens each had three hits for the Colonels, who stranded 16 runners on base, including the bases loaded three times. Miami left nine men on the bags.
Thirteen pitchers trekked to the mound Wednesday, including eight RedHawks, with senior reliever Reece Asbury (Centerville, Ohio) earning the win (1-2) by tossing two scoreless frames. Eastern Kentucky starter Austin Rexroat (1-1) took the loss, allowing four runs in 3.1 innings of work.
After flying out on the first pitch of the game, the Colonels went to work, loading the bases and scoring their first run on a walk while an infield single made the score 2-0. Weldon evened the count in the bottom of the second with a two-run blast to right-center field and the 'Hawks went on top 4-2 in the fourth on an RBI single by Weldon and a sac fly from Edgington that plated Jankowski.
EKU looked to threaten in the top of the fifth, loading the bags with two outs but redshirt sophomore reliever Ryan Meyers (Shorewood, Minn.) earned a strikeout to keep Miami up two. Again the Colonels loaded the bases in the sixth, but junior reliever Sam Dawes (Cincinnati, Ohio) worked out of the jam unscathed.
The RedHawks then widened the gap over the next two innings, notching three runs in the sixth, the first two on an RBI single by Edgington, and four runs in the seventh, including a two-run round-tripper to left field by Jankowski, to take an 11-3 lead, after EKU scored once in the top of the seventh. Senior reliever Jamaal Hollis (Chicago, Ill.) pitched the final two frames without allowing a run while fanning four Colonels to lock up the Miami win and a mid-week split.
"We've had big innings if you look at our last four games, but today was a little different," Simonds said. "We sustained innings, putting up two runs, three runs and one run here and there and we've got to do more of that throughout the course of the game."
The RedHawks remain at home this weekend when they begin Mid-American Conference play by hosting Central Michigan for a three-game series. Action at McKie Field gets underway Friday at 6 p.m. while Saturday's contest also starts at 6 p.m. and will be Military Appreciation Day. The series concludes Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
--MURedHawks.com--
