Long ball still big part of Tennessee Tech’s game

It looks like the power is turned on again at Tennessee Tech.

The Golden Eagles homered a school-record 11 times in a 30-17 win over Illinois State on Saturday. That was three off the NCAA record set by Georgia Southern against Columbia in 2008 and the most since Belmont hit 12 against UT-Martin in 2015.

“It was an anomaly. That’s the best way to say it,” coach Matt Bragga said Monday.

Tennessee Tech hit 99 homers last year to rank second to Wake Forest (106), and the Eagles have been in the top 10 nationally four of the past five years.

Bush Stadium in Cookeville, like most in the Ohio Valley Conference, is hitter friendly. On Saturday, the wind was blowing out to right center at 15-18 mph, with gusts up to 24.

“Honestly, out of the 11, probably three or four were normal home runs at this park,” Bragga said. “Probably six, seven, eight were definitely aided by the wind.”

Three players who combined for 38 of last year’s 99 homers are gone. Trevor Putzig, who had six last season, hit three on Saturday and four in the three-game series with Illinois State. Kevin Strohschein, who had 14 last season, also had three.

“This is an offensive league similar to the Big 12 in football,” Bragga said. “That’s what we do, and that’s what we recruit to, and it’s worked.”

Cal State Northridge leads the nation with 20 homers — two more than Tennessee Tech — after hitting 13 in a three-game sweep of Manhattan.

“Our guys are going to look at that,” a laughing Bragga said, “and think, ‘Holy smokes, what do we got to do?’”

Rankings: Defending national champion Florida (7-1), which won two of three at Miami, remained No. 1 in the DivisionIBaseball.com and Baseball America rankings and slipped to No. 2 behind Oregon State in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll.