CHARLESTON — Marshall baseball head coach Jeff Waggoner doesn’t believe in just a ninth inning closer, because as he often says, “The most important out might be the out in the eighth inning.”
Waggoner was never more right that Friday night when the Herd closer Burris Warner came on in the eighth with the bases loaded with Bulldogs and no outs. He got three outs with no runs scoring, saving the win for the Thundering Herd over Louisiana Tech, 7-4, in game one of a three-game set at Appalachian Power Park.
Warner, who picked up his seventh save — and is over halfway to the Herd record of 12 saves in a season by Austin Coan in 2010 — came out of the bullpen into a Bulldog at every base in the top of the eighth and the Herd clinging to a 5-4 lead.