It took some extra times to start the game Friday night but that waiting period didn’t stop the Eastern Kentucky Colonels as they opened up a three game series with Tennessee-Martin with a 9-1 victory.
The Colonels (16-18, 6-7 OVC) bats were helped out greatly by a stellar pitching performance by Tanner Perkins who went seven innings giving up no runs on seven hits and striking out five Skyhawks (3-28, 2-14 OVC).
The Skyhawks would walk the first three Colonels of the game and Bryan Soloman would make them pay early for that mistake. Soloman would hit a two run double to give Eastern Kentucky a quick 2-0 lead.
An error by Tennessee-Martin in the second would score TJ Alas and Luke Wurzelbacher to give Eastern Kentucky a 4-0 lead in the second.
The Colonels wouldn’t score again until Taylor Blair’s RBI single in the fifth inning that gave EKU a 5-0 lead.
Kyle Nowlin would add a RBI single and Sean Hagan would hit a two run home run in the sixth inning to give Eastern Kentucky their largest lead of the game at 8-0.
Tennessee-Martin would add their only run in the game in the eighth inning when the Skyhawks would get a run on a bases loaded walk to put Tennessee-Martin within seven runs.
Eastern Kentucky would get that run back in the ninth inning when Ben Fisher hit an RBI triple to give the Colonels their 9-1 victory. The two teams will play again on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Tanner Perkins earned the Maroon Nation Player of the Game award for his stellar performance on the mound and making the very wise decision to leave Western Kentucky and become a Colonel.