Slate features six NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago

2012 Schedule

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - After six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the quest for a seventh won't get any easier as the the 2012 Middle Tennessee volleyball schedule will feature seven matches against tournament teams from last season.

"Once again we have a very demanding schedule," head coach Matt Peck said. "We're going to be taking on a number of NCAA Tournament teams, and we're going to be challenged early. We'll have a very young team, so I think it's going to just make us that much better as the season goes on."

The schedule is a first of sorts for the volleyball program, as it includes 33 regular season matches, the most since 1996.

"We're going to play more mid-week matches year," Peck explained. "We're also playing more schools within driving distance, and it's going to help us avoid long stretches without playing, which is especially important with how many new people we'll have."

MT will look to come out strong, hosting Furman, UAB, UTSA and UC Davis the first weekend of the year in the seventh annual Blue Raider Bash at Alumni Memorial Gym. The four schools combined for a 87-39 mark last season.

"We're hoping to get started strong early," Peck said. "Playing teams of that caliber early will help us with some of the early question marks and identify who our primary players will be. Our competition is only going to get stronger from there on out."

The 16 schools that comprise the 2012 non-conference slate boast of a combined 301-175 record with 11 surpassing the 20-win plateau.

The Blue Raiders will also play a doubleheader both days of the tournament, the first of five such dates for the season.

"We're looking to have a very deep team," Peck said. "This will be our deepest team at every position since I've been here, and we want everyone to get as much on-court experience as possible in order to better prepare for conference season."

MT will then hit the road for seven straight matches over the ensuing two weeks.

The Blue Raiders will start by taking on Harvard, Towson and host Virginia Tech at the Hokie Invitational before making the trek from Blacksburg to Richmond to take on VCU on Labor Day.

The Blue and White will return to Murfreesboro for a few days before setting out east again, this time to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Carolina Volleyball Classic, featuring the host Tar Heels, NCAA Tournament participant Western Michigan and SEC power LSU. The three schools each topped 20 wins ago, combining for a 73-23 mark.

After a mid-week encounter with Austin Peay at AMG, MT will close out the heart of the non-conference schedule at the Louisville Invitational, hosted by frequent NCAA Tournament adversary Louisville. Miami (Fla.) and UNLV will make up the rest of the field. The Cardinals and Hurricanes both advanced to the Second Round in last season's NCAA Tournament.

"We felt that we needed to play a lot on the road early with such a young team," Peck said. "We think it will help our team continue to improve, but it also means that we can bring teams like North Carolina, Louisville and Virginia Tech to Murfreesboro down the line."

The Blue Raiders will certainly have an interesting start to conference season on Sept. 20, as they will play host to former MT assistant coach Amy Hendrichovsky and her South Alabama team.

"We obviously expect USA to be a much improved team, which only makes our division even stronger," Peck said. "There are a number of new coaches around the league and new financial commitments to volleyball, so the league is going to continue to get stronger."

Following a pair of tilts against Troy and at Louisiana, MT will face off against arch-rival WKU at AMG on Oct. 2.

"A lot of our players obviously have their minds on WKU, but it's important to take things one at a time," Peck said. "If we take care of business in the matches leading up to it, we could have the opportunity to take control in the conference early."

Following the WKU match, MT will travel to ULM and North Texas before taking a brief detour from SBC play at Austin Peay in Clarksville.

The Blue Raiders will welcome in both Florida Atlantic and FIU on the following weekend before hitting the road to take on UAB again, but this time in Birmingham.

The MT home slate will conclude on Oct. 19 and 20 with UALR and Arkansas State before hitting the road for five consecutive away dates, beginning with the annual south Florida trip and concluding with the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green on Nov. 10.

Five days after the end of the conference season, the Blue Raiders will look to return to WKU, this time for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

"We've had a very good record in Bowling Green over the past few years," Peck said. "We won the conference tournament up there in 2009, and hopefully we'll be able to play well up there again. We also love that fact that we can play close to our fans after going to Miami last year."

Once again, MT will play a Thanksgiving weekend match prior to the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Raiders will take the short jaunt up the road to Nashville to take on Lipscomb, an NCAA Tournament participant in four of the last five seasons.

"Lipscomb is a yearly tournament team," Peck said. "We know they've been strong and they know how good we've been, so we're looking forward to it. Depending on how our seasons shake out, it could also have tournament implications in addition to bragging rights."

Courtesy of Athletic Communications, GoBlueRaiders.com

Celebrate true meaning of holiday by volunteering, purchasing a flag

Murfreesboro, TN – The fourth annual Healing Field – Flags of Remembrance will take place Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28, 2012, and is presented by the Murfreesboro Noon Exchange Club.

The Healing Field, located on Medical Center Parkway next to Belk at The Avenue, will feature over one thousand 3-by-5 foot American flags displayed in a military style layout. Each flag can be sponsored for $30 in memory or in honor of a hero.

“An event of this magnitude relies on volunteers to make it happen,” said Rebecca Talley, event chairperson and assistant vice president for MidSouth Bank. “We encourage community members to lend a hand while honoring a hero this Memorial Day weekend.”

Individuals who would like to volunteer are encouraged to call the information line at 615-641-0121. Those interested in purchasing a flag should visit www.healingfield.org/murfreesboro.

The Field will open at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 26. Opening ceremonies include a presentation by the award-winning Murfreesboro Fire Department Color Guard. At 7 p.m., a flag retirement ceremony performed by Boy Scout Troop 538 of St. Rose Catholic Church will take place. Attendees are encouraged to bring tattered and tired flags.

Closing ceremonies on Monday, May 28, will include a performance by Lonestar lead singer Richie McDonald, along with prayer, the reading of the names of Tennesseans who have lost their lives in the War on Terror, the playing of Taps and a 21-gun salute.

Top sponsors for this year’s event include Middle Tennessee Medical Center, AT&T, Verizon, Beaman Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram and Wal-Mart.

The Exchange Club is comprised of men and women working together to make the community a better place to live through programs of service in Americanism, community service, youth activities and its national project, the Prevention of Child Abuse. Locally, the Murfreesboro Noon club supports the Exchange Club Family Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Membership is open to all dues-paying participants, and meetings are held at noon each Thursday at the Stones River Country Club. For more information, please visit www.NationalExchangeClub.org and www.familycenterTN.org.

What does it take to inspire a new generation of readers? For local literacy non-profit Read To Succeed, the effort begins at a young age, with programs that target toddlers, pre-K students, and their parents and grandparents.

Since 2003, Read To Succeed has connected MTSU education classes and community volunteers with families at Section 8 housing in Rutherford County as well as city and county schools to focus on literacy. Read To Succeed Executive Director Lisa Mitchell says that as our community continues to grow, focusing on family literacy becomes more and more important.

“Inter-generational illiteracy and poverty cannot be broken until the family as a whole begins to learn and realize the importance of education,” Mitchell says. “Many programs focus on just the adult or just the child. The value of Read To Succeed’s family literacy programs is its focus on the family as a whole.”

Each semester, Read To Succeed works with professors in MTSU’s education department to serve several in-need, local schools. In the past year alone, Read To Succeed has held programs at Mitchell Neilson Primary, Bradley Academy, Hobgood Elementary, John Coleman Elementary, Smyrna Primary, La Vergne Primary, Black Fox Elementary, and Buchanan Elementary, along with hosting monthly Imagination Stations for parents and their children who haven’t yet entered pre-school at Franklin Heights and Spring Valley in Murfreesboro. These programs provide reading time and supervised literacy activities for families, with MTSU education students or community volunteers creating and leading fun art, music, and literacy activities related to a carefully chosen book.

The goal of these programs is to foster the enjoyment of reading in Rutherford County families. The programs help parents feel more confident in sharing books with their children, model "active reading" for parents, and create a venue for family members to enjoy quality time together.

Parents are offered entrance into Read To Succeed’s one-on-one adult tutoring program or ESL classes throughout the county if they want to continue to progress their own literacy skills. Read To Succeed provides a meal for each participant and every family goes home with a new book, to keep, every week.

Murfreesboro’s Newk’s has donated several meals over the past two years. Newk’s local Marketing and Catering Director Mollie Ann Trollinger says that the restaurant gladly supports Read To Succeed’s mission of enhancing education in Rutherford County.

"It’s important to understand,” Trollinger says, “how literacy affects many aspects of one's life, including education and health.”

Several education professors work with their classes for weeks to prepare curriculum for families participating in Read To Succeed’s programs. And though the main goal is to serve these families, it benefits the MTSU students, as well.

“There is no better learning than active, hands-on service learning,” says Terri Tharp, an elementary and education professor who has worked with Read To Succeed for years. “The pre-service teachers' experiences with Read to Succeed and the local schools is service learning at its best. They are able to interact with the children, family members, school personnel, and Read to Succeed staff to advocate the importance of literacy. One of the best lessons that they learn is the importance of a strong home-school-community connection, and that they can be a part of the solution to address the literacy needs of our community.”

These professors—who’ve dedicated their careers to figuring out how to best educate our community’s children—help Read To Succeed improve its programs each semester.

Professor of Reading Education Joan Boulware says that Read To Succeed’s literacy initiative is the best she’s been involved in through her 30 years as an educator.

“Last year alone,” Boulware says, “seventy of my education students worked with underserved children and their families as a part of Families That Read, Succeed sponsored by Read to Succeed.”

Over the past nine years, Read To Succeed’s programs have evolved into a community-wide endeavor: each semester, hundreds of MTSU students work to help these families, countless volunteers show up to serve food and pass out books, funders like the Predators Foundation, Charity Circle, the Dollar General Foundation and Nissan Foundation generously support Read To Succeed’s programs, and local restaurants donate food and staff time. It is, truly, a group effort, and it’s an effort that keeps on growing.

Through May 31, 2012 the Todd Art Gallery hosts the remarkable work of five MTSU photography students. The exhibit entitled, “In Light: Works from Five Photographers,” features the artistry of Patrick Casey, Malina Chavez, Bradley Marshall, Chris Donahue, and Darby Campbell.

Of his work, Patrick Casey states, “I offer no philosophy, no deep meaning, and no striking social observation. Instead I only wish for you, the viewer, to look at my work and to find yourself,” in his photography which he expresses as the representation of a search for something.

Malina Chavez’s focus is “about connectedness, loss… and personal desires in a world full of mediated social programming.” Her “…work then considers how our interactions with new technologies constantly force us to re-think our current notions of what it means to be human.”

For Bradley Marshall photography is an ongoing study of the contemporary landscape and the imprint that humanity makes upon the natural world. His work explores, “…the tensions and impacting relationships between suburbia and the ever-changing Southern landscape that we continue to shape over the years.”

Darby Campbell’s works are selections from her series, “A Short Commentary on the Female Condition.” She deals with women’s issues, roles, and place within the social landscape. Darby also has included sculptural and installation elements to the exhibit that are drawn from her interests in the free thought movement, natural world, science, and the people in her life.

Chris Donahue’s body of work features an eclectic variety of people and places with a focus on the diversity of everyday people, whether through race, belief, or profession; an interesting study of the human condition as lensed through his camera.

The Todd Art Gallery is open Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. with all exhibitions, receptions, and lectures free to the public.

For more information and parking on In Light: Works from Five Photographers contact Eric Snyder at 615-898-5653.

People who want to adopt a duck pay $5 for one duck, $25 for a six-quack, $50 for a quacker’s dozen or $100 for a flock of 25 ducks, said Queen of the Quackers Kristin Demos. Each duck will be assigned a number.

About 10,000 numbered ducks will race down the Stones River beginning at 4:23 p.m. at the Sportsman’s Club at 1231 Medical Center Parkway. The person who adopted the winning duck will receive $5,000 bucks from presenting sponsor Sudsy’s Car Wash.

People who adopted the next 15 winning ducks will receive a total of about $18,000 in prizes.

Ducks may be adopted online at www.duckrace.com/murfreesboro or at Demos’ restaurant, Bell Jewelers on Northwest Broad Street, JoZoara’s at North Thompson Lane, Cox Family Martial Arts on South Church Street, Slick Pig on East Main Street, Lanes, Trains and Automobiles on Butler Drive, Top of the Block on Lokey Avenue, Sudsy’s Car wash on South Church Street, Murfreesboro Post on Rutherford Boulevard and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office on New Salem Highway.

CAC Executive Director Sharon De Boer said all proceeds go to the Child Advocacy Center of Rutherford and Cannon counties.

The Child Advocacy Center is a nonprofit agency that serves victims of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and drug-endangered children, along with their non-offending family members. In the last 12 years, the Child Protective Investigative Team consisting of the Child Advocacy Center, the Department of Children’s Services, law enforcement, mental health counselors, and the District Attorney’s Office have investigated and prosecuted over 7,500 child abuse cases in Rutherford and Cannon Counties.

“We have had amazing sponsors for the 2012 Duck Derby,” De Boer said.

Troy and Donna VanLier and Sudsy's Car Wash are the presenting sponsor. Many other businesses and organizations have supported the Child Advocacy Center for the last five duck races including Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority, Bell Jewelers, Demos', MidSouth Bank, Predators Foundation, Bob Parks Auction, Bridgestone, C & K Hardwood, Parman Energy, Murfreesboro Medical Clinic Pediatrics, Waldron, Fann, and Parsley, Sandra Benson, John and Sharon Sant Amour, Bill and Lucy Whitesell, and many others.

Other prizes include:

Second prize: A MOAB bicycle with accessories.

Third prize: A $500 gift certificate from Bell Jewelers.

Fourth prize: A $500 gift certificate from Demos’ restaurant.

Best of the Boro Fifth Prize: Gift certificates for Lanes, Trains and Automobiles, Discovery Center Children’s Museum, Cox Family Martial Arts, Champion’s Run Golf Course, Sam Davis Home, Chuy’s, Stones River Grille, Miller’s Grocery, Puleo’s Grill, Slick Pig, Sir Pizza, Hickory Falls and Five Senses restaurant.

Gatlinburg Getaway Sixth Prize: Two nights at Clarion Hotel, tickets to Dollywood, Rafting in the Smokies, Sweet Fannie Adams Theatre, Christ in the Smokies and Tip a Canoe Rental.

Romantic Nashville Getaway Seventh Prize: One night at Gaylord Opryland Hotel, tickets to the General Jackson showboat and breakfast at Pancake Pantry.

Memphis Blues Eighth Prize: Two nights at Holiday Inn Select Downtown, tickets to Graceland, Memphis Rock ’n south Mueseum, Belz Museum, Chucalissa Museum, Pink Place, Lichterman Nature Center, Sharpe Planetarium and dinner at Folks Folly Prime Steak House and Huey’s.

Hello Huntsville Ninth Prize: Two nights at Embassy Suites, massage at Spa Botanica and tickets to Burritt on the Mountain.

Let’s Get Pampered 10th Prize: Gift basket from Top of the Block and four one-hour massages from Bodyworks Massage and Tangerine facial, manicure and pedicure.

Nashville Elegance 11th Prize: One night at the Sheraton Music City, tickets to Cheekwood, Frist Museum, Nashville Symphony, Hermitage and dinner at Peter’s Sushi.

Nashville Family Fun 12th Prize: One night at Courtyard by Marriott, tickets to Adventure Science Museum, Centennial Sportsplex, Lane Motor Museum, Traveler’s Rest, Tennessee State Museum and dinner at Ginger Thai restaurant.

Lucky No. 13 “Honey, we’re going to Tunica” 13th Prize: Two nights at Bally’s Casino, two nights at Gold Strike Casino and dinner at Chicago Steak House.

Reelfoot Lake Fisherman’s Getaway 14th Prize: Two nights at Boyette’s Resort Cottage, Bo’s Landing fishing boat rental and dinner at Boyette’s Diner.

Chattanooga Day Trip 15th Prize: Ruby Falls, Tennessee Aquarium, Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center, Hunter Museum, Tennessee Valley Railroad, Southern Belle Riverboat and dinner at English Rose.

Last Duck Standing All for a Year 16th Prize: Car washes at Sudsy’s Car Wash, Bowling at Lanes, Trains and Automobiles and Cox Family Martial Arts membership.

For more information, contact De Boer at 867-9000.

MT opens play Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Bowling Green, Ky.

NEW ORLEANS - The Middle Tennessee baseball team has earned the No. 7 seed for the 2012 Sun Belt Tournament and will face No. 2 seed Arkansas State at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the Bowling Green Ballpark in Bowling Green, Ky. The Blue Raiders and Red Wolves, along with the No. 3 seed FIU Panthers and No. 6 seed Troy Trojans, comprise Pool B for the round-robin tournament hosted by Western Kentucky University.

MT (29-27, 14-16 SBC) will be making its 11th Sun Belt Tournament appearance, having only missed the tournament last season since joining the league for the 2001 season. This marks the first time the Blue Raiders have earned the No. 7 seed.

Ironically, since the tournament changed to an eight-team format in 1999, the No. 7 seed has qualified for the championship twice, and both times they faced the Blue Raiders. WKU is the only seven-seed to win the championship, knocking off fourth-seeded MT in 2004. In 2009, top-seeded MT defeated No. 7 seed ULM for the title.

Overall, the Blue Raiders have appeared in the championship game six times and won it twice, boasting the field’s best winning percentage in tournament games (.641). Prior to the 2009 championship, MT won as the No. 6 seed over fifth-seeded WKU in 2003. The Blue Raiders have played in the title game three times as the top seed, twice as the No. 6 seed and once as the No. 4 seed.

MT enters Wednesday’s contest after closing out the regular season with a 6-1 win over WKU. The Blue Raiders went 1-2 against Arkansas State April 27-29, dropping a pair of 8-5 decisions before earning a 5-3 11-inning win in the series finale.

The Red Wolves (32-21, 19-9 SBC) will be making their third consecutive tournament appearance as the team goes for its first SBC tournament title since 1994. ASU posted its most conference wins (19) since the 1995 season and its most overall wins (32) since 2005.

The tournament will feature a round robin format that showcases eight of the ten SBC teams competing against each other in two four-team pools. Pool A is comprised of top seed Florida Atlantic, No. 4 South Alabama, No. 5 ULM and No. 8 WKU. The Owls and the Jaguars hold the best winning percentage in Pool A at 0.667 (6-3) while FIU owns the best winning percentage in Pool B at 0.778 (7-2).

Championship Family Night kicks-off the festivities for the 2012 championship on Tuesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. To visit tournament central, click here.

2012 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Seeds (Season Record)
1. Florida Atlantic (31-20, 19-8 SBC) – A
2. Arkansas State (32-12, 19-9 SBC) – B
3. FIU (31-23, 15-14 SBC) – B
4. South Alabama (21-33, 15-15 SBC) – A
5. Louisiana-Monroe (28-27, 15-15 SBC) – A
6. Troy (26-29, 14-16 SBC) – B
7. Middle Tennessee (29-27, 14-16 SBC) – B
8. Western Kentucky (24-31, 13-17) – A

2012 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, May 23
G1: (5) Louisiana-Monroe vs. (4) South Alabama, 11 a.m.
G2: (7) Middle Tennessee vs. (2) Arkansas State, 3 p.m.
G3: (8) Western Kentucky vs. (1) Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m.
(3 and 6 are off)

Thursday, May 24
G4: (6) Troy vs. (3) FIU, 11 a.m.
G5: (1) Florida Atlantic vs. (5) Louisiana-Monroe, 3 p.m.
G6: (4) South Alabama vs. (8) Western Kentucky, 7 p.m.
(2 and 7 are off)

Friday, May 25
G7: (3) FIU vs. (7) Middle Tennessee, 11 a.m.
G8: (2) Arkansas State vs. (6) Troy, 3 p.m.
G9*: (1) Florida Atlantic vs. (4) South Alabama, 7 p.m.
(5 and 8 are off)

Saturday, May 26
G10*: (6) Troy vs. (7) Middle Tennessee, 11 a.m.
G11*: (2) Arkansas State vs. (3) FIU, 3 p.m.
G12*: (5) Louisiana-Monroe vs. (8) Western Kentucky, 7 p.m.
(1 and 4 are off)

Championship Sunday, May 27
G13: Pool A Champion vs. Pool B Champion, 1 p.m.

All Times Central and Subject to Change

Courtesy of Athletic Communications, GoBlueRaiders.com

MT wraps up year with fifth straight NCAA appearance

NORMAN, Okla. – Middle Tennessee saw its 2011-12 golf season come to an end on Saturday with a 13th place finish in the Norman Regional at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club (par 72, 7,387 yards). The No. 48 Blue Raiders had a 922 total for the 54-hole event.

No. 13 Washington had a 860 total to win by four strokes over No. 1 ranked Texas (864). No. 23 Florida State and No. 35 Illinois tied for third with 871, while host Oklahoma rounded out the top five with an 874. All five teams advance to the NCAA Championships at the end of the month.

“This was definitely not our best tournament but I am very proud of the year we had and to make the NCAA Regionals for a fifth straight season,” said Head Coach Whit Turnbow. “We will go back to work and improve things and come back strong in the fall.”

Senior Hunter Green closed out his stellar Blue Raider career with a 74 on Saturday to pace Middle Tennessee. Green, who had five birdies in the final round, tied for 35th with a 226 total.

Senior Brad Simons registered a 75 to tie for 58th with a 232 while freshman Andrew Cho tied for 61st with a 234. Cho carded a 77 on Saturday.

Sophomore Brett Patterson, playing in his second straight regional, tied for 64th with a 237 while Jordan Jennings tied for 68th with a 238. Jennings shot a 76 in the final round.

TEAM SCORES
1 Washington -4 F +5 286 281 293 860
2 Texas E F +4 279 293 292 864
T3 Florida State +7 F +12 279 292 300 871
T3 Illinois +7 F +8 284 291 296 871
5 Oklahoma +10 F +7 287 292 295 874
6 Georgia Tech +19 F +19 290 286 307 883
7 St. Mary's (CA) +28 F +16 286 302 304 892
8 South Carolina +31 F +11 294 302 299 895
T9 Arizona +38 F +14 289 311 302 902
T9 San Diego +38 F +12 303 299 300 902
11 Sacramento State +39 F +16 292 307 304 903
12 IUPUI +51 F +23 297 307 311 915
13 Middle Tennessee +58 F +14 304 316 302 922
14 Loyola U.- Chicago +80 F +35 307 314 323 944

MT SCORES
T35 Hunter Green (1) 74 78 74 226
T58 Brad Simons (3) 75 82 75 232
T61 Andrew Cho (5) 79 78 77 234
T64 Brett Patterson (2) 76 78 83 237
T68 Jordan Jennings (4) 79 83 76 238

Courtesy of Athletic Communications, GoBlueRaiders.com

Women's basketball coach one of 10 inductees Saturday

Photo Gallery

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Middle Tennessee head women's basketball coach Rick Insell was one of 10 inductees Saturday into the 2012 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame class. The annual banquet was held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville.

Courtesy of Athletic Communications, GoBlueRaiders.com

MT clinches Sun Belt Tournament berth despite loss

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The Middle Tennessee baseball team rallied twice against WKU to force extra innings on Friday night, but the Blue Raiders dropped a heartbreaker, 5-4, in 13 innings at Nick Denes Field. Despite the loss, MT clinched a berth for next week’s Sun Belt Tournament based on other results in the league.

“We will take any way we can to get in the tournament, then we’ll see what happens after that because you just never know in baseball,” head coach Steve Peterson said. “Obviously, we’d love to take a win entering the tournament. My team played hard (tonight), but we had all kinds of chances and couldn’t get it done. I know we left a lot of runners on because we couldn’t get big hits and made some crucial mistakes.”

The Blue Raiders (28-27, 13-16 SBC) stranded 20 base-runners in the contest, primarily due to a plethora of two-out hits. MT scored all four of its runs with two outs and collected 10 two-out hits, but failed to string together more than two hits in any two-out situation.

The Blue Raiders drew first blood on Ryan Ford’s RBI-single in the second. Ryan Stephens drew a two-out walk and Dain McNabb followed with a base-knock to left in front of Ford’s run-scoring rip to right.

Ford would finish 2-for-7 with a pair of RBI, while McNabb went 2-for-4 with an RBI a run and a pair of key sacrifices.

WKU (24-30, 13-16 SBC) evened the score in the third on a pair of singles from Blake Crabtree and Scott Wilcox, then put two more on the board in the fifth for a 3-1 lead. Crabtree and Jared Andreoli reached on singles and moved up on a wild pitch before Ivan Hartle smacked one back up the middle to deliver the two-run blow.

MT immediately responded with a pair of runs to knot the game at three all in the sixth, once again coming up with key two-out hitting. Jordan Rorex knocked one to left and McNabb laced a two-out double to the right-center gap to bring the Blue Raiders within one. Ford tied it up with a shot up the middle the middle for his second RBI of the day.

Still tied at 3-3 in the seventh, WKU managed to push a run across on a Blue Raider miscue. Crabtree took a walk to open the frame and made his way to second on another Hartle single. Wilcox grounded to third, but Justin Guidry’s throw to second hit Hartle and rolled into the outfield, allowing Crabtree to charge home from third for the go-ahead run. The Hilltoppers loaded the bases on another walk, but Hank LaRue, McNabb and Guidry combined for a clutch double play to prevent any further damage.

That defensive momentum carried into the eighth where the Blue Raiders rallied again, scoring another two-out run to re-tie the game at four. Stephens sparked the comeback with a leadoff single and McNabb bunted him to second. Guidry delivered the game-tying run with a two-out base-knock to right-center as Stephens crossed the plate for the second time.

The two teams would remain knotted through the next four frames, with each side working out of jams to preserve the tie. MT left two on in the 10th, stranded Stephens at third with one out in the 12th and loaded the bases in the 13th, but couldn’t come up with the timely hit.

The Hilltoppers left two on in the 10th before tallying the game-winning run in the 13th. It was Jared Andreoli with the bases-loaded single that broke up the stalemate and handed WKU the victory.

Joey McClung (4-2) suffered the loss for MT despite a solid relief effort of 5.0 innings. He allowed three hits and just the one run while striking out four. Justin Hageman (4-6) picked up the win for WKU after holding MT scoreless through 5.2 while giving up four hits.

The two teams will meet for the final game of the regular season on Saturday at 1 p.m. Johnathan Frebis will take the mound for MT. Dick Palmer and John Callow will have the call on WMOT 89.5.

Senior rakes in award for second straight year

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Senior Matthew Langley has been named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team, as announced on Friday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). It marks the second year in a row Langley has earned the honor.

Last year, Langley earned Capital One Academic All-America Third Team accolades, in addition to being named an ITA Scholar-Athlete. He has maintained a 4.0 GPA as an exercise science major over the past two years and was named one of Middle Tennessee’s International Student-Athletes of the Year earlier this spring.

Not only has Langley been outstanding in the classroom, but his athletic prowess has led the Blue Raiders to three Sun Belt Championship titles in the past four years, including the past two seasons. The West Beach, Australia, native earned Most Outstanding Player honors at each of the past two conference tournaments. During his senior campaign, Langley played in the No. 2 singles position and finished with a 24-14 overall and 17-9 dual mark.

Langley becomes the first Blue Raider to earn multiple all-district honors. He is one of 10 student-athletes from District 3 now eligible for Academic All-American status.

2012 Capital One All-District 3 Team
Sean Bailey, Austin Peay
Matt Snyder, Virginia
Matthew Langley, Middle Tennessee
Ryan Helms, Tennessee
Geoff Peitz, Davidson
CJ Costabile, Duke
Anthony Lin, Duke
Alejandro Espitia, NC Central
Devin Carter, Virginia Tech
Jon Fausey, Virginia
Ryan Hawkins, Virginia Tech