Murray State
33-24
Southeast Missouri
29-20
Racers Tie Single-Season Home Run Record, Force Winner-Take-All for OVC Title
5/30/2021 12:06:00 AM | Baseball
The Racers win big over Southeast Missouri to force winner-take-all championship game.
It was all Murray State from the start. The Racers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back behind the great pitching of Malik Pogue and Jacob Pennington.
Only throwing 9.0 innings in the regular season, Pogue gave the Racers the performance and length they needed. After walking the first batter of the game, Pogue settled in for the longest outing of his career, 4.0 innings, and struck out a career-high five while not allowing a run.
Offensively, Brennan McCullough was 4-for-5, his first four-hit night of his career, with an RBI and two runs scored. Trey Woosley delivered his first career triple, drove in three runs and scored one.
However, it was Bryson Bloomer who had the biggest hit of the night, a no-doubter grand slam.
Murray State's big inning was the fifth where they put up a five-spot slam to break the game wide open. Ryan Perkins led off with a walk and Alex Crump bunt singled to put to Racers on for McCullough who doubled off the base of the wall, scoring Perkins. Crump was thrown out at the plate on the play. Two walks to David Hudleson and Jake Slunder loaded the bases for Bryson Bloomer who did not miss on his first career grand slam.
Bloomer's grand slam marked the 84th home run of the season for the Racers, tying the single-season program record set back in 2017.
Jacob Pennington came on in relief of Pogue with two runners on in the fifth inning and got the strikeout looking and a double play from David Hudleson to end the frame. Pennington showed no signs of fatigue after throwing 67 pitches on Thursday. He had a lights out pitching performance, retiring six straight at one point, allowing only one run in five innings while striking out six.
The Racers tacked on insurance runs in the sixth, seventh and ninth for the biggest win of the 2021 OVC Tournament.
The #2 seed Racers force a winner-take-all OVC Championship Game tomorrow (May 30) against #1 seed Southeast Missouri. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. This year marks the first time SEMO and MSU face each other for the OVC Tournament title
T4 | GRAND SLAM!
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) May 29, 2021
Bryson Bloomer clears the bases with a grand slam for his 🔟th 💣 of the season! pic.twitter.com/2gOMoDvYWO
What day. We'll see you tomorrow afternoon at the Ballpark in Jackson. Come to the game if you can. pic.twitter.com/y9b4BtB3Hc
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) May 30, 2021
Racers' Bryson Bloomer & Jacob Pennington on the big grand slam & shutdown pitching in the 10-1 win over SEMO. pic.twitter.com/oqOtdXdOGA
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) May 30, 2021
Coach Dan Skirka following the Racers' win over SEMO. pic.twitter.com/zXEcJIjmiB
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) May 30, 2021
The stage it set. It's time to punch a ticket!
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) May 30, 2021
Narration: @AlexGould714 pic.twitter.com/n3hxMrdJFM
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Pennington, Jacob (5-2)
L: RALLS, Hunter (3-2)
Batting:
2B: McCullough, Brennan 2
3B: Woosley, Trey 1
HR: Bloomer, Bryson 1
RBI: Bloomer, Bryson 4 ; Anderson, Brock 1 ; McCullough, Brennan 1 ; Woosley, Trey 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Slunder, Jake 1 ; Bloomer, Bryson 1 ; Perkins, Ryan 1 ; Crump, Alex 3 ; McCullough, Brennan 2 ; Woosley, Trey 1 ; Hudleson, David 1
HBP: Crump, Alex 1
Batting:
2B: SPERLING, Danny 1 ; LEEPER, Peyton 1
RBI: MASON, Jevon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: SPERLING, Danny 1
HBP: LEEPER, Peyton 1
