Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Oral Roberts
Racers Swept by Oral Roberts in Opening Day Doubleheader
2/16/2019 8:46:00 PM | Baseball
After being pushed back a day, the Murray State baseball team opened the 2019 season with a double-header against Oral Roberts in Tulsa. The Summit League favorite Golden Eagles had a come-from-behind 6-5 win in game one before comfortably downing the Racers in game two, 11-3.
"We did some really nice things today, made some great plays, had some good at-bats and some good innings on the mound," said head coach Dan Skirka after his Racer debut. "But Oral Roberts is a really good club, and when you make mistakes against championship-caliber teams, they make you pay. Our process got away from us a little bit and we made some costly errors."
Jake Slunder and Ryan Perkins each finished the day with three hits in the two games. The big hit of the day was a three-run home run by Wes Schad in game one to give the Racers an early 3-0 lead. Perkins and Tyler Duke had two runs batted in on the day as well.
Game 1
After both teams went down in order in the first, Brock Anderson recorded the first hit of the game with a double before Jaron Robinson singled to set up first and third in Schad. The redshirt-freshman, in his first at-bat of his career, turned on a 0-1Â pitch and smacked a three-run home run to left field.
The Racers weren't done in the second as Jordan Holly singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Perkins singled him home to give the Racers a 4-0 lead.
Perkins added his second RBI of the game in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly to drive in Slunder who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
Oral Roberts began their comeback in the fourth with two runs before adding two more in the fifth and finally two more runs in the sixth to take a 6-5 lead.
The Racers had their chances in the final three innings of the game, putting the tying run in scoring position in all three innings, including having the bases loaded in the ninth, but they were unable to push to equalizing run across the plate.
Trevor McMurray started the game on the mound and pitched four innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out four. Justin Thomas made his Racer debut in relief and threw two hitless innings with two strikeouts.
Game 2
The second game started similar to the first as the after a scoreless first, the Racers put the first run on the board in the second inning. Anderson led off the inning with a walk and came around to score on a triple by Duke.
However, the lead did not last long as the Golden Eagles scored three in the bottom of the second to take a lead they would not give up. Duke produced a sacrifice fly in the third, but a run in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth by ORU expanded their lead to 6-2.
Oral Roberts blew the game open in the seventh with five runs to take an 11-2 lead. Duke added another RBI in the ninth with a single to produce the final score.
The Racers and Golden Eagles wrap up the series tomorrow with one more game starting at noon.
"Since I've known this group, they have shown toughness and I know they will be ready to go tomorrow," said Skirka.
