MURRAY, Ky. –  With the University of Evansville baseball team down to its final out on Saturday, junior second baseman Kip Fougerousse launched a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the ninth inning, and junior closer Nate Hardman struck out the side in the bottom half of the frame to send the visiting Purple Aces past the Murray State Racers, 7-6, at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky.
“What a game!†said UE head coach Wes Carroll.  “I will be honest, we were outplayed in a lot of areas today, but the guys never quit, and Kip stepped up big for us late offensively to help us get this win.  And, then to have Nate come in and slam the door in the bottom of the ninth was huge!
“Hopefully, this will be the spark that lights a fire for us down the stretch with this club!â€
Murray State built a 6-1 lead through the first seven innings courtesy of some timing hitting and a pair of home runs by first baseman Brennan McCullough and outfielder Cade Sammons.  Fougerousse provided a spark with a two-run home run to dead center field in the top of the eighth inning to trim the Murray State lead to 6-3, but the Racers brought on their closer, Ben Krizen, who entered the game with five saves and a sub-2.00 ERA, to get out of a mini-jam in the eighth inning and keep the score at 6-3.
After reliever Shane Harris (3-2) worked a perfect eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts, UE sent the top part of its batting order to the plate in the ninth inning to face Krizen.  After Krizen struck out both Mark Shallenberger and Chase Hug to begin the frame, Evansville worked three-straight walks to load the bases with two outs, and Fougerousse blasted the third pitch he saw over the wall in left-center field to give UE its first lead of the day at 7-6.
Hardman would then come on in the bottom of the ninth inning to strike out McCullough, shortstop Drew Vogel and Sammons around a one-out walk to nail down his fourth save of the year and give UE an important series-opening win over the Racers.
Fougerousse finished the day going 2-for-5 with two home runs and a season-best six RBI.  It marked his third-straight multi-hit game and extended his hitting streak to six games overall.  Evansville only mustered six hits on the day, but the first eight men in the UE batting order all reached base thanks to earning 10 walks.
Harris earned the victory in relief for UE by scattering three runs on three hits in 3.2 innings of work, while striking out six.  Krizen (0-2) suffered the loss by giving up a season-high four runs on just one base hit in 1.1 innings of work.  It marked just the second time all year in which he had allowed more than one run in an outing.
With the victory, Evansville improves to 22-15 overall and 7-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference.  Murray State, meanwhile, slips into a tie with Evansville in the Valley standings for fourth place with a 20-19 overall record and 7-6 conference mark.  The two teams will conclude the series on Sunday with a 12 p.m. doubleheader.  UE is expected to send junior LHP Donovan Schultz (4-2, 3.56 ERA) and senior LHP Tyler Denu (2-2, 4.35 ERA) to the mound in the doubleheader, which can be seen live on ESPN+ and heard live in the Tri-State area on 107.1 FM-WJPS and the Old National Bank/Purple Aces Sports Network from Learfield.
