As the end of the semester draws nearer, so does the end of the season for many sports at MTSU.

Courtside, MTSU men’s and women’s tennis wrapped up the regular season as both teams prepare for the Conference USA Championships later this week. Meanwhile, on the softball diamond, the Blue Raiders defeated Western Kentucky on Sunday to take the series over the Hilltoppers.

Without further delay, here’s everything that happened across Blue Raider sports over the weekend. Brett Walker

Men’s tennis ends regular season with senior day double header

MTSU men’s tennis ended the regular season on a high note on Sunday night, sweeping a two-game senior day slate against Wichita State and Tennessee State.  

Against Wichita State the Blue Raiders came out of the gate hot in doubles play as the ever-lethal tandem of Ondrej Horak and Karim Al-Amin ran away with the win as they secured a 6-1 court one victory. To secure the doubles point for Middle Tennessee, Kristian Thomas and senior Rostislav Halfinger earned a win as well, beating their opponent 6-3.  

The Blue Raiders didn’t let up in singles play, as Horak won the first match, beating Vanja Hodzic 6-4, 6-3. On court five, Igor Mandou Berranger came back after losing the first set and won two straight sets to secure a 0-6, 6-1,6-4 win.

MTSU went on to sweep the Shockers after Wichita’s Kristof Minarik was forced to retire in the tiebreaker set against Al-Amin.  

Middle Tennessee picked up exactly where it left off earlier in the day, in the regular season finale against TSU.  

The Blue Raiders swept doubles play again as the Horak/Al-Amin duo and the Kroslak/Halfinger duo each picked up a 6-3 win over the Tigers.  

In singles play the only point TSU captured was from a Shu Matsuoka loss. After that it was all Blue Raiders once again. Kroslak, Al Amin, Berranger and Halfinger all picked up solid wins. The final game went down to the wire as Horak was in a battle with TSU’s Taj Hibbert. Horak eventually came out on top in a tiebreaker, 6-1, 6-3, 7-5. The Blue Raiders ended the season with a 6-1 win over the Tigers.  

The Blue Raiders will have a few days of rest and practice before heading to Lynchburg, Virginia in search of their sixth straight Conference USA Championship. The first round of the tournament is set for Friday, April 18. Alex Wittke

Women’s tennis closes out regular season with Texas road trip

MTSU women’s tennis (16-7) closed out its regular season on the road by splitting a pair of matches in Texas against Sam Houston and Rice.   

Middle Tennessee faced off against Sam Houston on Friday claiming a dominant 4-0 victory. The Friday win pushed the Blue Raiders’ win streak up to six matches. 

One standout performance that stood was Lena Peyer’s singles match.  Peyer picked up the first singles win of the day with a dominant 6-2, 6-3 straight set win to stretch her unbeaten streak to six games. 

Following a sweep of the Bearkats, the Blue Raiders played their final match of the regular season against Rice on Saturday.  After a hard-fought performance, Middle Tennessee ultimately came up short and fell 0-4. 

In doubles, Rice took an early 6-0 win on court three.  The Blue Raiders provided more resistance on the top two courts with Alessia Truden and Rutuja Chaphalkar leading 5-3 in an unfinished game and Peyer and Eloise Swarbrick falling 3-6 to ultimately lose the doubles point. 

Alessia Truden secured the first set on court one, but the other first sets fell the way of the Owls.  From there Rice closed out the match by claiming straight set victories on courts three, two and four. 

Despite the loss, Middle Tennessee finished with the team’s best record since the 2017-18 season. 

MTSU will next make its way to Lynchburg, Virginia to compete for the Conference USA Championship beginning on Wednesday, April 16th. Will Phillips

Softball takes series against Western Kentucky

Middle Tennessee softball (21-22, 9-9 CUSA) won two out of three games against Western Kentucky (21-18, 7-10 CUSA) to take the series in the 100 Miles of Hate Rivalry.

The Blue Raiders began the weekend with a 5-4 win against the Hilltoppers in a back-and-forth matchup on Friday night. 

Western Kentucky opened up the scoring in the fifth with a single from Morgan Sharpe scoring Maci Masters to take a 1-0 lead. The Blue Raiders quickly responded as right fielder and former Hilltopper Addy Edgmon tied it up with a solo home run of her own. Designated hitter Julia Garcia then hit a three-run home run to give Middle Tennessee a 4-1 lead. 

In the sixth inning, Western Kentucky tied it up at four runs a piece after a solo home run from Kennedy Stinson and a single from Masters scored Katie Murphy. 

Middle Tennessee pitcher Leila Ammon pitched five innings with four strikeouts while allowing four runs before being relieved by Mary Martinez. 

Heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, Martinez came up to bat and hit a home run to center field scoring the final run, winning the game for the Blue Raiders 5-4.

Saturday was a big day for WKU as pitcher Rylan Smith powered the Hilltoppers to a 2-1 victory. 

Western Kentucky began the scoring in the first inning with an RBI single for Masters to take a one run lead. The only run for the Blue Raiders came after Smith walked Ansley Blevins, scoring Addy Edgmon to tie the game. Smith pitched a complete game with 12 strikeouts while allowing only one run after walking it in. 

The bats were hot for the Sunday rubber match as there were a combined four home runs as MTSU secured the series win with a 4-3 victory. 

WKU took another early lead as Stinson launched a two-run home run to begin the scoring in the second inning. Middle Tennessee then scored three runs in the third inning as Edgmon got the Blue Raiders started with a home run. 

In the fifth inning, the Hilltoppers tied it up at three after a solo home run by outfielder Macy Gregor. In the seventh inning Jana Want came up big for Middle Tennessee as she hit a walk off home run to win the game 4-3 and to clinch the rivalry series for MTSU.

Middle Tennessee continues its homestand next weekend against Jacksonville State (27-17, 10-8 CUSA), with the first game being played on Thursday, April 17th. David Cassman

Baseball drops home series to Louisiana Tech

Middle Tennessee baseball dropped two of three to Louisiana Tech in Murfreesboro this weekend. 

The Blue Raiders (16-20, 3-9 CUSA) have fallen to ninth in Conference USA while LA Tech (23-13, 8-3 CUSA) sits in second with five weeks left in the regular season. 

The series kicked off with LA Tech taking a 5-4 win over MTSU in game one.  

Lefty Collin Kerrigan made the start on Friday night, in what has turned into a revolving door of a pitching rotation for the Blue Raiders. Typical Friday starter Trace Phillips is out indefinitely, according to head coach Jerry Meyers. 

Trey Hawsey got the scoring started in the top of the second with the first of two solo home runs on the day for the first baseman. 

Second baseman Clay Badylak sent a single to left to drive in an RBI for the Blue Raiders in the fourth and then took the lead as he scored on a wild pitch. 

The Bulldogs tied it in the fifth with Hawsey’s second home run and took the lead with an RBI double from Eli Berch that drove in two along with an RBI double from Thaxton Berch. 

Kenny McKinley clubbed his seventh home run in the bottom of the sixth to pick up two RBIs, bringing it to 5-4. 

After the MTSU home run in the sixth, the Bulldogs’ bullpen took over, as LA Tech’s Nate Crider, Logan Forsythe and Blake Hooks combined for 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. Will Jenkins provided 3.2 innings of shutout ball for Middle Tennessee as well. 

Centerfielder Eston Snider hit a career benchmark in the fifth inning, as an infield single to short marked his 200th collegiate hit. 

LA Tech picked up its second win of the series in comeback fashion Saturday night, defeating MTSU 10-8 thanks to a six-run inning in the top of the ninth. 

The Bulldogs picked up three runs in the third against Middle Tennessee’s Drew Horn. Across seven innings, Horn totaled four strikeouts while allowing six hits and six walks on 111 pitches. 

The Blue Raider bats caught fire in the sixth, seventh and eighth as Brett Vondohlen and Hayden Miller picked up home runs, along with three RBI singles from Brett Rogers, Wolfe and Badylak to give MTSU an 8-3 lead heading into the ninth. 

The game completely fell apart in the ninth for the Blue Raider bullpen, however. Cole Torbett started the inning and gave up a double to Colton Coates that scored two. Ollie Akens entered and allowed a three-run home run to Sebastian Mexico, along with a walk and a single to bring it to 9-8. 

Landen Burch entered and got out of the inning, but not before surrendering an RBI double to Cade Patterson. 

The Blue Raiders went three up, three down in the bottom of the ninth after blowing the five-run lead. 

Middle Tennessee stole game three behind a three-run, ten strikeout performance from Chandler Alderman. 

Keaton Ray gave MTSU an early lead with a double that drove in two in the bottom of the first. The Bulldogs responded quickly with a two-run home run from Eli Berch to tie it up. 

Rogers picked up an RBI on a groundout in the fourth, and LA Tech once again tied it with a home run from Thaxton Berch.  

The Blue Raiders took the lead for good in the sixth on a solo home run from Tyler Minnick.  

Alderman turned it on for MTSU in the seventh, as he retired his last nine hitters including five strikeouts. 

Middle Tennessee heads to Nashville on Tuesday to take on Belmont (16-22, 6-6 MVC), before heading to Bowling Green, Kentucky to take on Western Kentucky (31-5, 9-3 CUSA) in the storied 100 Miles of Hate rivalry next weekend. Willie Phaler

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