Murray State University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Baseball Begins Preparation For 2017
1/27/2017 3:58:00 PM | Baseball
The Murray State baseball team officially opened spring practice on Friday with an intra-squad scrimmage at Reagan Field. MSU is coming off a program-best 15 OVC victories in 2016 and its 27 wins last season, are the most since 2010.
The Racers return a pair of First Team All-OVC members in senior catcher Tyler Lawrence and senior first baseman Ramsey Scott. It was the third all-conference honor for Lawrence who was named to the second team in 2015 and to the All-Freshman Team following 2014.
Lawrence hit .355 (ninth in the OVC) with eight home runs, 32 extra-base hits and collected 58 RBIs while scoring 52 runs in 2016. Lawrence's 22 doubles on the year set a new program record and were the 12th-most in the country. Lawrence collected a team-best 24 multi-hit games and 12 games with multiple RBIs. In OVC-only games, Lawrence hit .365 with 14 doubles, three homers, drove in 30 and scored 34 runs. His .493 on-base percentage in conference games was the second-highest in the league.
Scott hit .335 last season and ranked second in the league with 63 RBIs, fifth in homers with 13 and his .612 slugging percentage ranked seventh-best in the OVC. In conference games, Scott led the league with 40 ribbies and was fourth with eight home runs. His .388 batting average was the sixth-best in the OVC. Scott ranked second on the team with 23 multi-hit and 16 multi-RBI games in 2016.
Joining Lawrence and Scott with all-conference honors were Adam Bauer (second team) and Jaron Robinson (all-freshman team). Bauer led the OVC and was second nationally with 67 runs scored and nine triples. The nine triples were a program record at MSU while the 67 runs are the third-most in school history. Bauer also reached base safely in the first 50 games of the season, which set a new Racer record. At the time his streak ended, it was the longest active streak in the country. Bauer finished the year hitting .341 and was second on the team with 75 hits to go along with five home runs and 40 RBIs.
Robinson hit .255 on the year and had nine extra-base hits, 17 RBIs and scored 27 runs. In conference games, Robinson hit .261 with six doubles. Robinson had nine games with two or more hits and four games with multiple RBIs in 2016 while making 45 starts at shortstop.
MSU begins its 2017 campaign February 17 in Hammond, La., against Hofstra. The Racers will play three games in Hammond, as they will face Louisiana-Lafayette Feb. 18 and Southeastern Louisiana Feb. 19. MSU's home opener is slated for Feb. 24 when Buffalo comes to Reagan Field for a three-game series. OVC play begins March 10 at SIU Edwardsville. Austin Peay will be the first conference series at home for the Racers, beginning March 17.
