Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Players Mentioned
MSU Opens OVC Tournament Tuesday Against EIU
5/21/2018 10:33:00 AM | Baseball
GAME 54
No. 7 Murray State (26-27) vs. No. 8 Eastern Illinois (23-30)
May 22, 2018
First Pitch: 6 p.m.
Stadium: Choccolocco Park
Dimensions: 325 (LF) | 395 (CF) | 320 (RF)
Series History: EIU leads the all-time series 48-40
Last Meeting: MSU 5, EIU 0 – March 25, 2018
Watch Live
Live Stats
Twitter In-Game: @RacersBaseball
First Pitch
The Racers are making back-to-back OVC Tournament trips for the first time since 2009 and 2010. MSU is 31-39 all-time in the OVC Tournament, including going 2-2 last season. The Racers closed the regular season winning four consecutive series. MSU is the No. 7 seed while EIU is the eighth seed.
Inside the Matchup
MSU swept the series in March with the Panthers at Reagan Field. The Racers are 3-2 all-time in neutral site games against EIU and last faced the Panthers in 2010 in the tournament, winning 14-4. EIU closed the season winning 5-of-6, including its final three OVC series, sweeping Austin Peay and UT Martin and taking 2-of-3 from SIUE.
Dave Doubles
Davis Sims ranks second nationally in doubles hit this season with 28, just behind UNLV's Bryson Stott. The 28 two-baggers are a new single-season program record, breaking the old mark set in 2016 of 22 by Tyler Lawrence. Sims is just one shy of tying the OVC single-season record for doubles hit as well.
Series Victory
MSU won four consecutive series to end the regular season with its two-game sweep of UT Martin. The Racers also took 2-of-3 to end the regular season from Belmont, Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.
Grand Salami
Mike Farnell and Brandon Gutzler both hit grand slams over the weekend at UT Martin. The Racers have had five different players hit bases-loaded home runs in 2018. The two wins over the Skyhawks were the first games this season that MSU has won a contest in which it hit a grand slam.
Scouting Eastern Illinois
Jimmy Govern leads Eastern Illinois with a .333 batting average and is second on the team with 43 runs and eight stolen bases. Hunter Morris, who's hitting .324, leads the team with 54 RBIs while Dougie Parks has a team-best 29 extra-base hits and a team-high 44 runs. Joseph Duncan leads the Panthers with 13 stolen bases in 2018. EIU is hitting .271 as a team and is 33-of-43 on stolen-base attempts.
The Panthers are scoring over six runs per game this season. Michael Starcevich leads EIU with a 2.79 ERA, 69 strikeouts, 24 appearances and nine saves on the year. Tyler Jones leads the squad with seven wins in 2018 and has a 3.03 ERA with a team-best 68.1 innings pitched. Carson Haws, Alex Stevenson and Dustin Wilson all have three victories for the Panthers, which are second-best on the team. EIU has a team ERA of 6.09 and an opponent batting average of .292 while allowing just over seven runs per contest.
