Racers Rally With Seven-Run Ninth to Take Down SIUE

Friday, May 17

Edwardsville, Ill.

6 p.m.

Murray State

23-27, 16-13

SIU Edwardsville

18-32, 10-19

Murray St.

SIUE

Brock Anderson

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

5/17/2019 10:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State baseball team has made it a habit coming back late in games to win, yet they had not had a win this season when trailing after eight innings.

That box can officially be checked off tonight as the Racers came back from four runs down in the ninth to defeat SIU Edwardsville, 7-4, Friday evening.

Brock Anderson and Jordan Cozart started the rally with back-to-back doubles to make it a 4-3 game before four walks and two hit-by-pitches forced in four more runs for the Racers in the inning.

"I told the guys they had great at-bats throughout the game," said head coach Dan Skirka. "We made a couple of mistakes on the bases and then had a couple of bad at-bats and let their pitcher off the hook. We had a chance to get to their pitcher early and we didn't, but we were finally able to get him and get to their bullpen."

The game moved at a brisk pace for the first six innings with neither team able to push across a run, but in the seventh, SIUE took the lead with four runs, three of them coming on a home run.

The Racers went down quickly in the eighth but in the ninth, the Racers rallied. Ryan Perkins began the inning by reaching first when strike three got past the catcher. Jake Slunder followed with a single before Anderson laced a two-run double to the gap in right-center to cut the MSU deficit in half. Cozart followed with his own double to drive in Anderson to make it a one-run game with still no outs in the inning.

After Jaron Robinson struck out, Sean Darmafall was hit by a pitch to put the go-ahead run on base. Bryan Chilton then struck out for the second out before CJ Bush worked a hard-fought walk to load the bases. The Racers then took the lead without Jordan Holly or Perkins taking the bat off their shoulders, looking at eight straight pitches out of the strike zone. The Racers added two more insurance runs in the inning as Slunder was hit by a pitch and Anderson walked.

The bottom of the ninth got a little dicey for the Racers as SIUE loaded the bases with two outs. Peyton Cordova-Smith looked like he was going to extend the game as he sent a fly ball to the left-field corner, but Perkins got on his horse to make a running catch to end the game.

For the Racers, tonight was their 14^th comeback win of the season, including the 11^th time when trailing after six innings.

Murray State will wrap up the regular season tomorrow against the Cougars with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Also, with tonight's results around the OVC, the Racers are locked into the #5 seed and will play either Belmont or Morehead State, Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. in the OVC Tournament in Marion, Illinois.