Baseball Travels to Lexington For Matchup With Kentucky

Murray State (7-8) at Kentucky (11-2)

GAME 16
Dates: March 16, 2021
First Pitch: Tuesday- 4:00 p.m. EST
Location: Lexington, Ky.
Stadium: Kentucky Proud Park (5,000)
Dimensions: 335 (LL), 375 (LC), 400 (CF), 365 (RC), 320 (RL)
Series History: Kentucky leads 20-6
Last Meeting: Mar. 4, 2020 (Kentucky Won 9-8)

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Murray State Baseball Notes (PDF)

Probable Starters
Jacob Pennington (RHP) (1-1, 3.21 ERA) vs Ryan Hagenow (RHP) (1-0, 1.54 ERA)

First Pitch
The Racers travel to Lexington to face Kentucky for the second straight season at Kentucky Proud Park. MSU is coming off taking 2-of-3 from Eastern Illinois over the weekend to begin OVC play. The Racers set a new program record with seven home runs in series finale.

Inside the Matchup
The Racers and the Wildcats have met at least once a season dating back to 2004 with the exception of 2009 and 2019. Kentucky holds a 20-6 series advantage over the Racers going back to the first meeting 1947 where the Racers won 9-7. The Wildcats have won seven straight, including 2020 where they won 9-8 in Lexington, Ky.

Weekend Recap
The Racers took two of three from Eastern Illinois to earn their first conference series victory of the 2021 season. On Friday, Shane Burns went 7.0 innings and the Racers won 9-2. During the Saturday doubleheader, MSU lost game one, 14-10, but bounced back in game two to set a new program record with seven homeruns in the 15-5 win.

A Look at the Racers:
The Racers bats were popping off in Charleston, Ill. over the weekend. Murray State hit 13 home runs over the three games, including new program record seven in game two on Saturday. Six different Racers hit long balls of the EIU staff. Brock Anderson and Jordan Cozart are tied for the team lead with six homers apiece. Jake Slunder had the biggest blast, a grand slam. It was his first career grand slam and his first home run of the season. The team's 25 home runs tops the OVC and is sixth in the nation.

The seven home runs Murray State hit in game two on Saturday broke the home runs in a single game program record. The previous record was six, first set in 1981 and matched four times, most recently in 2016 on Feb. 28 against Northern Illinois.

Jordan Cozart found his groove at the plate again and continues to lead the Racers offense in batting average (.310), hits (18), doubles (5), home runs (6), total bases (41), runs scored (15), RBIs (18) and slugging percentage (.707).

Jake Slunder sparked the Racers offense over the weekend with three multi-hit games and extended his on-base streak to 14 games. He was 2-for-5 with three runs scored, one walk and had seven putouts in centerfield on Friday. Slunder set a new career-high with three stolen bases, good for second in the OVC with six total. On Saturday, Slunder went 3-for-4 in game one against EIU, hitting a double, an RBI and scoring twice. In game two of the doubleheader, Slunder had the biggest of the Racers' seven home runs against the Panthers, launching his first career grand slam. He also scored three runs, walked once and stole two bases. Slunder improved his batting average to .310 and has an on-base percentage of .387.

On the mound, the Racers will hand the ball to redshirt freshman Jacob Pennington. Pennington is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA with twelve strikeouts over 14.0 innings. Pennington has appeared four times in 2021, making one start against Lipscomb where he went 3.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits with two strikeouts.

Scouting Kentucky
The Kentucky Wildcats swept the weekend series over Georgia State and have won four consecutive games overall during their 11-2 start.

Senior T.J. Collett homered in all three wins vs. the Panthers and provided the game-winning hit in two of the three games. UK outscored Georgia State 26-4.

On the mound, the Cats struck out 38 batters against just five walks. Senior left-hander Mason Hazelwood struck out a career-high 12 batters in just six innings on Saturday as part of a game that saw the Cats punch out 19 total batters, the most in a nine-inning game since at least the 2005 season. Senior righty Sean Harney picked up his fifth save, which leads the country, in Sunday's finale.

The pitching staff ranks fourth nationally in ERA (1.99), third in WHIP, fourth in strikeoutto-walk ratio and fourth in fewest walks allowed per nine innings. The Cats pace the SEC in each of those categories.
Freshman right-hander Ryan Hagenow is expected to draw his fourth start of the season. He is 1-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 11.2 innings, allowing just eight hits, three walks and striking out 15 thus far.

Baseball Travels to Lexington For Matchup With Kentucky

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Players Mentioned

Brock Anderson

Shane Burns

Jordan Cozart

Jacob Pennington

Jake Slunder

Murray State University Athletics