Racers To Face Top-Ranked Arkansas in Fayetteville

Friday, March 5

Fayetteville, AR

3 p.m.

Murray State

Arkansas

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

3/4/2021 1:26:00 PM | Baseball

2021 Game Notes

Murray State Baseball will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas to face No. 1 Arkansas in a three-game set from March 5-7.

Murray State (5-3) at #1 Arkansas (7-0)

GAMES 9-11
Dates: March 5-7, 2021
First Pitch: Friday 3 p.m. CT; Saturday 1 p.m. CT, Sunday 1 p.m. CT
Location: Fayetteville, Ark.
Stadium: Baum-Walker Stadium (11,129)
Dimensions: 320 (LL) | 375 (LC) | 400 (CF) | 365 (RC) | 312 (RL)
Series History: Arkansas leads 2-0
Last Meeting: May. 2, 1986 (Arkansas Won 3-2)

Follow The Racers:
Radio: TuneIn Radio
Video: SEC Network+ | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Twitter In-Game: @RacersBaseball
Murray State Baseball Notes (PDF)

Probable Starters
Friday - Shane Burns (LHP) (0-1, 6.23 ERA) vs Peyton Pallette (RHP) (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Saturday - Sam Gardner (RHP) (0-1, 12.00 ERA) vs Caleb Bolden (RHP) (0-0, 6.23 ERA)
Sunday - Jack Wenninger (RHP) (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Lael Lockhart (LHP) (0-0, 4.50 ERA)

First Pitch
Murray State (5-3) travels to #1 Arkansas (7-0) for a three-game series this weekend. The Racers and Razorbacks play Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., CT.

Inside the Matchup
This is Racers' first meeting with the Razorbacks since 1986 when the two teams met in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Hogs won both contests, 9-3 and 3-2. Murray State and Arkansas will play a three-game series from March 5-7.

Recap
Murray State is coming off a five-game home stand, winning four of five, including a walk-off win against Purdue Fort Wayne, 5-4, on Saturday, Feb. 27. Jordan Cozart was named OVC Player of the Week for hitting .407 (11-27) with seven runs scored, four doubles, two home runs, five RBIs, a .778 slugging percentage and a .448 on-base percentage.


We're Going Streaking
Murray State is on a four-game win streak. This is their longest since they swept Saint Peter's from Feb. 21-23, taking all four games of the series. Six Racers currently hold multi-game hitting streaks. Jake Slunder leads with a five-game hit streak while Trey Woosley, Brennan McCullough and Jordan Cozart follow close behind with four games. Slunder is also the only Racer to reach base safely in every game played.

Opening Week Sluggers
Brock Anderson cracked two home runs on Opening Day against Lipscomb. The dingers accounted for the Racers first four RBIs of the season. Five total Racers popped long balls in the first week of the 2021 season. Cozart leads the team with three homers.

Coming From Behind
The opposing team has scored first in six of Murray State's eight games. The Racers have three come-back victories on the season, including one walk-off win, 5-4 against Purdue Fort Wayne.

Home Field Advantage
The Racers went undefeated (7-0) at Johnny Reagan Field in 2020. So far this season, Murray State has won four of five home contests, only dropping the home opener to Purdue Fort Wayne, 10-6.

Stepping Up to the Plate
As a team Murray State's leadoff hitters are batting .424. Jordan Cozart is 7-for-9 (.778) when leading off an inning. Both Tanner Booth and Brennan McCullough are hitting .600 (3-5) and Jake Slunder is 5-for-10 (.500) when up first to the plate in an innng.

Mr. Clutch
With runners in scoring position, David Hudleson is a perfect 3-for-3, with four RBIs, including knocking in the Racers winning runs the previous two games. Alex Crump is hitting .667 with two RBIs and Ryan perkins is 4-for-7 (.571). The Racers are .338 with runners in scoring positions.

OVC Honors
Collegiate Baseball News Preseason Third Team All-American pick Jordan Cozart is off to a fast start in 2021. Cozart went 11-for-27 with seven runs, four doubles, two home runs, five RBI, .778 slg %, and a .448 OB% en route to being named the OVC Player of the Week .

Ranked Opponents
The Racers will face two ranked teams this season. Arkansas is ranked No. 1 in this week's poll by D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America. Arkansas is ranked first for the first time in the history of the Baseball America rankings, which dates to 1981. Following the series in Fayetteville, the Racers travel to No.5 Louisvile to face the Cardinals.

Familiar Look
The Racers lineup has a familiar feel to it with MSU returning eight of its position player starters from last year. 5^th year senior Ryan Perkins leads the team with 191 games of experience.

Racer Debuts
Three juco transfers made their Murray State debuts on Opening Day against Lipscomb. Brennan McCullough started at DH in game one with Seth Gardner starting at DH in game two. Nathaniel Gorczyca pitched two innings, allowing two hits and two runs while striking out one. True freshman RHP Cade Vernon got his first collegiate start against Arkansas State, pitching 3.0 innings, only allowing two hits, one run, zero earned runs, striking out one.

Strikeout Woes
The Racers struck out a total of 21 times over the two games in Hoover, Ala. against Lipscomb and 11 more versus Middle Tennessee. Over the previous two games, the Racers have improved, punching out 10 total times, four in game four of the Purdue Fort Wayne series and six against Arkansas State. On the season, Murray State has struck out 66 times at the plate.

New Faces
The Racers welcome 15 new players to the team this year, including seven freshman and eight JUCO transfers.

All-American Honors
Senior Jordan Cozart was named a 2020 Collegiate Baseball News Third-Team All-American and a 2021 Collegiate Baseball News Preseason Third-Team All-American.

BrockStar
Senior Brock Anderson was a repeat selection to the preseason All-OVC team. A year ago, Anderson led the team with 8 home runs and 23 runs batted in while hitting .274.

Trio of Racers
MSU landed three on the preseason All-OVC team for the first time since 2017. Senior outfielder Brock Anderson, senior second baseman Jordan Cozart and sophomore left-hand pitcher Shane Burns.

Racers Picked Third
Murray State was picked third in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll as voted on by head coaches and SIDs. Belmont was selected to claim the top spot after receiving 14 first-place votes.

Home Sweet Home
The Racers will play a total of 25 contests inside the friendly confines of Reagan Field in 2021 including closing the season at home for five of six series.

Scouting Arkansas
Arkansas is the consensus top-ranked team in the nation, earning the No.1 nod from Baseball America, D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA)

The Hogs are off to a 7-0 start in 2021, starting the week with a 4-1 win against then No. 10 TCU before returning home to sweep Southeast Missouri State in a four-game set.

Arkansas has knocked off three top-10 opponents so far in the 2021 campaign, also defeating then-No.3 Texas Tech and then-No. 9 Texas.

Casey Opitz is hitting .381 with eight hits, six runs scored, three doubles and one RBI followed by Jalen Battles at .379 with 11 hits, four doubles, five runs scored and eight RBIs.

On the mound, Peyton Pallette has logged 9.1 innings, allowing four hits, no runs and a record of 1-0 while striking out 16.

As a team, Arkansas is hitting .291 through the first seven games with 67 hits, 13 doubles, 2 triples, 11 home runs, 43 RBI, scored 54 runs and tallied 117 total bases. The Razorbacks have a .509 slugging percentage, .402 on-base percentage and stole 10 bases.