Murray State University Athletics
That Championship Season Turns Out To Be One For The Books For MSU
6/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Murray State Thoroughbreds won their first Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament title since 1979 this season, but it was a season in which the 'Breds were picked to finish next-to-last in the OVC pre-season poll. Along the way, MSU set some team and individual records on its road to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
The 56 games that Murray State played tied the record set in 1999. The 'Breds set new records this season in at-bats (1,859, beating the former record of 1,785 set in 1999) and pitching strikeouts (409, breaking the former record of 319 set in 1998 and 1999).
The 'Breds also set a single-game hits record in the OVC Championship Tournament title game, pounding out 26 hits to beat Eastern Kentucky 19-4 on May 24, besting the former mark of 25 hits set in 1999.
Individual records also fell by the wayside as well for Murray State. Brett McCutchan set career records for doubles with 54 over his four years, breaking the career mark of 42, set by Danny Alfeldt (1988-91) and tied by Craig Delk (1995-98). McCutchan pounded out 21 doubles this season, breaking the former single-season mark set by Chris A. Williams in 1998 and tied by Todd Fox in '99.
McCutchan had 161 career runs batted in, bettering the career mark of 152 set by Gary Blaine (1981-84). He also tied the single-game hits record of five, becoming the 12th 'Bred to get five hits in a game and the first since Chris Johnson performed the feat in 2000.
Garner Byars became the first Thoroughbred to garner more than 700 career at-bats, finishing his four-year career at MSU with 737, beating the former career mark of 697, set by Brad Burns (1996-99). His 869 career plate appearances is also a new MSU standard.
Gordon Dugan set a new record for career pitching appearances, becoming the first Thoroughbred to pitch in 80 games, besting the former record of 69 set by Greg Harvey (1996-99). He also set a single-season appearances record of 29 games, bettering the mark of 27 set by Jason Glosser in 2000.
Greg Gray tied an MSU record with eight saves this season, equaling the mark made by Matt Seely in 1994 and tied by Rick McCarty in 2001.
Charlie Ward became the 30th Thoroughbred to have seven at-bats in a single game, the first since Eddie Doyle did so in 1997.
Most remarkable is that Murray State made its first NCAA appearance since 1979. The OVC coaches' pre-season poll ranked MSU seventh out of eight teams, not expecting the 'Breds to even make the six-team OVC Championship Tournament, let alone the NCAA Championship. The strength of the MSU pitching staff brought the 'Breds to the title, as the staff finished with a 5.24 earned-run average, ranked second in the OVC at the end of the 2003 season and first for much of the regular season. Six Murray State pitchers had ERA's below 5.00 at the close of the year.
Murray State graduates seven seniors, Byars, Dugan, McCutchan, Ward, Ronnie Seets, Craig Ringwald and Kevin Moulder. Those seven and the rest of the 'Breds staff and its fans know that 2003 will be a season to remember.
