Morehead State junior infielder Jaden Correa stepped up to bat in the top of the ninth inning.
He found the pitch he wanted and whacked it to left field for a single. The Morehead State fans in the crowd that made the trip exploded in celebration.
There was no RBI on the hit, no milestone for the player, and the Eagles were down 7-0 at the time.
The fans were celebrating because Correa had finally broken up a no-hit bid from Eastern junior right-hander Bryce Riggs.
Despite spoiling Riggs’s no-hitter, Morehead State was unable to come back and the Panthers won the second of a three game series 7-2 Saturday at Frost Field at Coaches Stadium.
“It sucks not finishing the no-hitter, but we still got the win,” Riggs said. “Obviously it would have been cool to get the no-hitter, but it ended up not happening.”
Despite not finishing the game, Riggs was still able to throw eight and one-third innings and allowed two hits, while striking out eight. He left the game in the ninth inning with the bases loaded, and two came around to score on a two RBI single by junior Ian McCubbin.
Riggs gave credit to mother nature, saying that having the wind blowing in from left field allowed him to be aggressive and attack hitters.
He trusted that if the batters got a hold of his pitches that they would stay in the park, and his teammates would do the rest.
Riggs had to wait five innings for his offense to give him some run support, but after an RBI single by redshirt senior outfielder Joey Hagen in the fifth to give Eastern (15-9, 5-0) a 1-0 lead, the Panthers took advantage of back-to-back errors in the sixth inning and scored six runs. A throwing error by Morehead State right-hander Landon Waugh allowed two runs to score to get the offense rolling.
Waugh allowed seven runs, but only one was earned.
Eastern pitching coach Max Fecske said that Riggs wasn’t concerned with the game being close. He knew his teammates would put the runs on the board, he just had to wait for them to do so.
Head coach Jason Anderson said he knows what Riggs is capable of and had high praise for him after the game.
“It was just one of them days. He is a heck of a ball player,” Anderson said. “There’s just certain days where he just kind of gives off a vibe like, ‘I’m gonna be pretty good today,’ and I felt that early with him.”
Fecske, Anderson and senior catcher Zak Goodwin all said that Riggs was mixing all four of his pitches well, which is what kept Morehead State off balance throughout the game.
“Morehead [State] is a good swinging team,” Goodwin said. “I know they like to try and hit the ball far, and a lot of times they’ll try and overswing and with Riggs, you can’t do that.”
Eastern and Morehead State will finish the series tomorrow, as Eastern goes for it’s second straight series sweep to start OVC play.
The game will start at 4 p.m. at will be played in Charleston on Frost Field at Coaches Stadium.
Aaron Coffin can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
