MURFREESBORO – Michael Kellett hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth to lead Chowan College to an 8-7 win over Elizabeth City State University.

The baseball Braves took the victory over the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II team Thursday afternoon.

&uot;Kellett hit the big homerun for us in the ninth,&uot; first-year skipper Aaron Carroll said. &uot;It was good to see him get that big hit.

&uot;We also got good pitching from Nick Anders and Nathan Hilliard,&uot; he continued. &uot;All in all this was a good team effort. We played well enough to win.&uot;

ECSU plated one run on two hits in the top of the ninth to tie the score at seven-all and set up Kellett’s heroics.

With one out in the home half of the ninth, Kellett hit a shot over the rightfield wall to end the contest.

The score came after both teams had put together fine hitting performances. The Braves and Vikings combined for 26 hits in the contest.

Elizabeth City State scratched first, scoring a run on a Jami Moore RBI-double to take an early lead.

Chowan started their part of the offensive flurry by plating five runs in the bottom of the first.

P.J. Sadler had a two-run triple and Nick Hagler scored a run on a sacrifice fly. Patrick Swift then singled and went to third on an error just before Matt Dize connected on a two-run homer to lift the Braves to a 5-1 advantage.

Chowan pushed the advantage to 7-1 when they added two runs in the bottom of the third inning.

Kellett set the table by reaching on a single before Matt Gibbons doubled him home. Joey Ryder then singled to left to plate Gibbons.

The Vikings plated four in the top of the fifth to cut into Chowan’s lead. ECSU scored four runs on five hits to trim Chowan’s advantage to 7-5.

They got even closer an inning later when Carlos Gutierrez plated a run on a sacrifice to get the Vikings within a run at 7-6.

The Braves improved to 9-3-1 with the victory. They will play the first of six road games in a row when they travel to Ferrum for a 1 p.m. contest today.