VMI baseball coach Jonathan Hadra ’04 won his 100th career game as a collegiate head coach Sunday as the Keydets defeated East Tennessee State University (ETSU) 6-0 in the finale of a Southern Conference series. Hadra is only the third coach in VMI baseball history to reach 100 career victories and is just four shy of tying Scott Gines for second place (104) all time.
Hadra’s Keydets rode the right arm of junior Zak Kent, who threw eight innings of shutout ball, striking out 12 while scattering six hits and four walks. Sunday’s victory also gave VMI the win in the series against the former conference-leading Buccaneers, taking the first and third games of the three-game conference series.
Jake Huggins opened the fourth inning with a single. Josh Hollifield singled with one out, and Don Goodes brought home Huggins with another single. An ETSU error later in the frame allowed a second run to score with two outs and give VMI a 2-0 edge.
Junior Ryan Hatten belted a two-run home run over the centerfield fence to make the lead 4-0 in the sixth. Another unearned run crossed the plate in the sixth and VMI struck again for a run in the eighth. Hatten led off with a double, was sacrificed to third by Cody Warner, and scored on a single from Ryan Smoot.
Kent was masterful with runners on base, stranding 11 Bucs and working out of bases-loaded jams in the fifth and sixth. His record stands at 4-2 on the season with a 3.31 ERA and a conference-best 81 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings.
Hatten finished 2-4 with two runs and two RBI, and Hollifield was also 2-4 with a double and scored twice. Every Keydet starter recorded a hit on the afternoon.
David Beam was 2-3 for ETSU (23-8/4-2 SoCon).
VMI (8-24/4-5 SoCon) travels to Radford University Tuesday for a non-conference game at 6 p.m.
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Chris Graham
