Racers Drop Tight Contest to Southern Miss

Saturday, February 15

Hattiesburg, Miss.

4 p.m.

Murray State

0-2

Southern Mississippi

2-0

Murray State

Southern Miss

Shane Burns

Photo by: Southern Miss Athletics

2/15/2020 8:33:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State baseball team lost a tight contest with Southern Mississippi, 3-2, Saturday afternoon.

Ryan Perkins provided the runs with a ninth-inning two-run home run, but it was too little too late as the Racers were unable to complete the comeback.

"Overall, we are playing well and competing hard," said head coach Dan Skirka. "Offensively, we gotta find a way to create more scoring opportunities and then get that big hit once guys are on base. Southern Mississippi hasn't walked many and they've played 18 innings of errorless baseball. So they aren't giving us anything to work with."

Shane Burns provided a second-straight solid outing by a Racer starting pitcher as he threw five innings, striking out five while allowing one unearned run on just three hits allowed.

"On the mound, we have made some great pitches and pitched out of a couple jams," continued Skirka. "Where we have gotten in trouble is when he have hit or walked the leadoff hitter of the inning, and have given them a couple rallies. When you do that to a really good club like them, it's going to be tough."

After the Golden Eagles pushed across an unearned run in the first inning, the Racers put the leadoff man on in the following three innings, but a couple of double plays halted any rallies.

The Racers threatened again in the seventh after USM took a 2-0 lead by putting two runners on base, but again could not find the big hit.

After Southern Miss added a key insurance run in the eighth, the Racers scored their first runs of the weekend on Perkins' two-out two-run home run, but that was all MSU could muster.

The two teams will wrap up the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. Sam Gardner will get the start on the mound for the Racers.