Racers Head to Southern Illinois on Tuesday

Murray State (21-16, 11-7 OVC) at Southern Illinois Salukis (26-12, 6-10 MVC)

GAME 38
Dates: April 27, 2021
First Pitch: Tuesday: 5 p.m.
Location: Carbondale, Ill.
Stadium: Itchy Jones Stadium (2000)
Dimensions: 330 (LL) 390 (CF), 330 (RL)
Series History: Southern Illinois leads 50-20 (L4)
Last Meeting: Feb. 25, 2020 (SIU Won 2-1)

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Murray State Game Notes

First Pitch
The Racers are on a five-game win steak, their longest of the season after winning the final game of the series against Belmont 2-0, the midweek game at Bellarmine 10-5 and sweeping the EKU series at home, 6-3, 10-8 and 7-3. It was the Racers first conference series win after dropping the previous two to Southeast Missouri and Belmont.

Inside the Matchup
The Racers and Salukis have met 70 times on the diamond with SIU holding a 50-20 series lead. The Salukis have won the last four with MSU's last win coming on Mar. 22, 2017 in Carbondale, 13-10. In Carbondale, Southern Illinois holds a 29-7 advantage.

Probable Starters
Quinton Kujawa (RHP) (1-0, 6.48 ERA) vs Mike Hansell (RHP) (2-1, 4.83 ERA)

A Look at the Racers:
Murray State sits second in the conference standings only behind Morehead State with an overall record of 21-16 and a conference record of 11-7. They have won series against EIU, JSU, TTU and EKU and dropping series to SEMO and BEL.

The Racer began the second half of their Ohio Valley Conference schedule with a sweep of last place Eastern Kentucky over the weekend. Murray State will play road series at Morehead State (Apr. 30-May 1) and SIUE (May 14-15), and host UT Martin (May 7-8) and Austin Peay (May 20-21) in its final two home series to close out its 30-game conference slate.

After dropping back-to-back conference series versus Southeast Missouri and Belmont in which they were outscored 36-18 in their losses. The Racers got back on track against Eastern Kentucky sweeping the Colonels for their first conference series sweep of the season. The Racers used stellar defense and timely hitting to put together three "team" wins.

Murray State tied a program record with three triples in Saturday's 7-3 win seeing Slunder hit his third of the season, second of the series, Jacob Pennington his first career and Ryan Perkins his first of the season.

The Racers are riding a five-game win streak. Their previous long this season was four games. This is their longest since they won five in a row Apr. 23-29, 2017.

Quinton Kujawa will start his second-straight midweek game as the Racers battle the Salukis. The Lewis and Clark CC transfer took the win last week against Bellarmine, throwing a career-high 4.2 innings and striking out a career-high five batters.

Bryson Bloomer has been on a tear in the month of April batting .433 with an on-base pct of .462 and slg pct of .650. He has a team-high 26 hits, 7 doubles and 14 RBI in the month and is outhitting the next closest Racer by 8 hits. Since his hot-streak, Bloomer's batting average has improved 100 points to highest on the team at .300, collecting 10 of his 13 multi-hit games during this time.

Jake Slunder is showing off his lighting quick speed, swiping 17 bases so far this season, tied for 23rd best in the nation. Slunder has legged out three triples, 29th-most in the country and 2nd in the OVC. He also has an active six-game streak, the longest active on the team. 12 of his 44 hits have been infield singles and scored from second on a wild pitch.

Scouting Southern Illinois
The Southern Illinois Salukis are 26-12 overall and 6-10 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. At Itchy Jones Stadium, the Salukis are 17-6 in 2021.

The Salukis who started the year 19-1 have since gone 7-11, losing six of thier last seven. Five of their six losses were one-run games. SIU dropped conference series to Bradley and Valparaiso.

SIU is sixth place of eight in the MVC but leads the league in multiple offensive categories: batting average, walks, double plays, doubles, hits, home runs, runs scored, sac flies, runs per game, slugging percentage and triples.

Mike Hansell is the Salukis midweek starter vs Murray State. In 31.2 innings of work, Hansell has struck out 26. He has gone 1.2 innings in his previous two outings allowing three earned runs.

Nick Neville is fifth in the nation with 45 runs scored, reached base in 22-straight games and leads the team with 50 hits.

Five SIU players have 10+ multi-hit games: Tristan Peters (14), J.T. Weber (13), Nick Neville (13), Philip Archer (11), and Ian Walters (11).

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Players Mentioned

Bryson Bloomer

Quinton Kujawa

Jacob Pennington

Ryan Perkins

Jake Slunder

Murray State University