“Obviously, we have some guys — Boston Smith is seeing the ball really well, and Luke’s hit was big in that situation.”
After Patrick Fultz cleared the fence for a 5-5 tie in the seventh, Luke Arnold smashed a two-run homer in the eighth for a 7-5 lead.
That was all reliever Chet Lax needed, shutting down ETSU without a hit for the final 2.2 innings.
“We told each other this morning before the game started, ‘Play for one more day. Twenty-seven outs. Play for each other.’ We do that every time. The Raiders are never out of a game. That’s just what we do,” Lax said.
After a demoralizing 4-3 loss to No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt on Friday, the Raiders (39-20) will play again in the elimination bracket at 3 p.m. Sunday against either Louisville or the host Commodores (those two meet at 9 p.m. Saturday).
If Wright State wins, it’ll play in the championship round at 9 p.m. Sunday.
“We’ve been trying to beat the door down, and it starts with getting a win,” Sogard said.
“Anything can happen. We get a chance to put on the uniform again tomorrow. These guys will be ready to go,”
Arnold and Fultz both notched their seventh homers of the year, while Boston Smith extended his Horizon League record with his 25th. All three had two hits.
The Raiders had four homers in all — Gus Gregory also blasted one — in snagging their first regional win since going 2-2 in 2016 and ’15. They ended a 10-game losing streak in tourney and are 6-21 all-time in NCAA regionals.
ETSU (42-17), reaching the NCAAs for the first time in 12 years, walloped three homers.
“We’re playing with house money,” Arnold said. “Nobody really expects us to win. We just go out there and give it our hardest. There’s nothing to lose, just play to live another day.”
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