Gray went seven innings for the Aces, turning-in one of his best performances of the season. The West Jefferson, Ohio native allowed just four hits in a scoreless seven-inning outing, striking-out five Spartans. At the dish, it was the heart of the order that did much of the damage for Evansville on the evening. Fourth-place hitting Brent Widder went three-for-four on the day, boosting his average to .314 on the season, while tallying an RBI and a run. Following Widder in the lineup, fifth-year second baseman Evan Berkey continued to rack-up the RBI, adding three to his season total on Friday evening, highlighted by a third inning homer to left field that scored two, his fifth dinger of the season.
Evansville’s offense stayed hot after Tuesday’s 10-run production against Austin Peay and got the scoring started in the first. An RBI base hit from Widder scored the first run of the game as Tanner Craig crossed home on the play to give UE the 1-0 lead. With two outs in the third, Evansville added more to its total, tallying four in the inning with Berkey’s homer scoring the first two and an RBI double by Brendan Hord capping-off the inning.
Two more runs came across for the Aces in the fifth as Danny Borgstrom notched an RBI on a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Widder. Soon after, a pitch got away from the Spartan catcher allowing Berkey to move from second to third. The catcher could not locate the ball, causing head coach Wes Carroll to send Berkey home, who slid head first across the plate to push the Aces lead to 6-0.
UE’s lead grew as large as seven with Berkey skying a sacrifice fly to left that scored Widder to push Evansville’s advantage to 7-0.
Michigan State would scratch a few runs back in the eighth, getting within five at 7-2, but the Aces closed-out the contest on the arms of Kieren Hall and Drew Dominik to secure an Evansville victory.
The Aces are back for the second game of the weekend series on Saturday at 2 PM against Michigan State at German American Bank Field in Evansville.
