Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
27-27
Eastern Illinois
23-31
Racers Open Tournament Play With Convincing Win
5/22/2018 10:49:00 PM | Baseball
Murray State pounded out 16 hits and Trevor McMurray tied a career-high with six innings pitched as the No. 7 seed Racers opened OVC Tournament play with a 15-5 victory over eighth-seeded Eastern Illinois Tuesday night at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.
Grant Wood, who earlier in the day was named the OVC Freshman of the Year, got the Racers (27-27) out the gates quickly and they didn't look back as his two-run home run gave MSU an early 2-0 lead in the first. After EIU (23-31) got a run in the second inning to make it 2-1, the Racers opened up some breathing room by being patient at the plate with a four-run bottom half of the second.
Mike Farnell, Davis Sims and Wood all drew bases-loaded walks to push the score to 5-1. Brandon Gutzler finished off the scoring in the inning with an RBI single to center field to make it 6-1. In the fourth, a Farnell double to the gap scored Sims and MSU led 7-1.
In the fifth, the Panthers cut it to 7-2 before a Jaron Robinson RBI double and a Gavin Wehby RBI groundout put the lead back up to 9-2. A five-run sixth by the Racers put the game essentially out of reach at 14-2. Kyle Stevens and Wood both had RBI singles in the inning while Wehby had a three-run single that tallied a pair of RBIs. Robinson scored on an error on the play.
Wood drew another bases-loaded walk in the eighth to round-out the scoring for MSU and made it 15-2. EIU would score three runs in the top of the ninth to close out the contest.
Robinson led the Racers with a three-hit night while Farnell, Gutzler, Ryan Perkins, Stevens, Wehby and Wood all had two hits in the win. Wood led MSU with five RBI on the night while Scott scored a team-high three runs. MSU drew 11 walks on the night, including three each from Sims and Wood.
McMurray allowed just one earned run on four hits in his six innings of work and registered his fifth win of the year. McMurray also struck-out three batters. Connor Holden, Tyler Horsley and Jake Jones all pitched an inning each of relief.
MSU now moves on to the double-elimination portion of the tournament and will now face second-seeded Southeast Missouri Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: McMurray, Trevor (5-2)
L: STEVENSON, Alex (3-8)
Batting:
2B: MORRIS, Hunter 1 ; KNERNSCHIELD, Ryan 1 ; SMITH, Justin 1
RBI: DUNCAN, Joseph 1 ; PARKS, Dougie 1 ; MORRIS, Hunter 1 ; HUBER, Jimmy 1 ; TESMOND, Tyler 1
SF: HUBER, Jimmy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: DUNCAN, Joseph 1 ; MORRIS, Hunter 1 ; KNERNSCHIELD, Ryan 1 ; SMITH, Justin 1 ; TESMOND, Tyler 1
SB: DUNCAN, Joseph 1
HBP: DUNCAN, Joseph 1
Batting:
2B: Farnell, Mike 1 ; Gutzler, Brandon 1 ; Robinson, Jaron 2
HR: Wood, Grant 1
RBI: Wehby, Gavin 3 ; Wood, Grant 5 ; Sims, Davis 1 ; Farnell, Mike 2 ; Gutzler, Brandon 1 ; Stevens, Kyle 1 ; Robinson, Jaron 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wehby, Gavin 2 ; Wood, Grant 2 ; Sims, Davis 1 ; Farnell, Mike 1 ; Scott, Ramsey 3 ; Perkins, Ryan 2 ; Stevens, Kyle 2 ; Robinson, Jaron 2
CS: Sims, Davis 1
