The Skyhawk baseball team improved their record to 14-25 Tuesday sweeping a doubleheader from Mississippi Valley State. These much needed victories came after UTM dropped a three game conference series to Austin Peay this past weekend in Clarksville.

The APSU Governors jumped out to an early 10-0 lead in the first game against freshman pitcher Ben Meador who only faced 10 batters in a little over one inning.

The Govs managed to put 14 more runs on the board during the game, and held the ’Hawks to only two runs, 24-2.

The second and third games were more of the same with APSU picking up the wins, 13-4 and 13-1.

Sophomore pitchers Micky Dobson and Scott Massey were credited with the other two losses against the Governors as Austin Peay knocked out 26 hits during the doubleheader.

Offensively only five Skyhawks managed to put more than one hit on the books in the series: Freshman Douglas Nicodemus had five; senior Bryant Jones, four; sophomore Brett Spivy, three; and senior Hunter Hart and junior Nick Bruner each had two.

Things took a turn for the better when the Skyhawks traveled to Mississippi Valley. They beat the Delta Devils 8-2, and 2-1. Meador redeemed himself against MSVU, picking up his fifth win of the season. He struck out eight and scattered six hits on the day.

Meador leads the team in ERA with a 4.84.

Junior Brett Hall lead the offensive charge, going 3-4 at the plate. Freshman Scott McLean went 2-4 and Jones went 2-5 and had two RBIs.

In the second game, sophomore Casey Estill picked up his second win of the season, allowing just one run in a over six innings. Junior Dustin Summers came in and picked up his first save of the season.

Jones shined once again at the plate, going 3-3 in the second game, knocking the first of the Skyhawks two runs.

With his five hits on the afternoon, Jones broke the Skyhawks single-season hits record with 75. He also holds the career hits record with 197.

“We had good pitching in both games,” said Bubba Cates, the Skyhawks head coach. “Ben Meador did a good job in the first game, while Casey Estill did an outstanding job for us in the second game.”

The Skyhawks next face OVC rival Murray State away this weekend in a three game series.

The teams are currently tied in the conference standings for seventh, with 5-10 records in OVC play.

This is an especially crucial series for the Skyhawks. Only the top six teams in the conference will advance to the OVC tournament next month.