Murray State
22-13, 0
Southern Illinois
20-16, 0
Howell, Hogart Go Yard To Clinch Series Over Southern Illinois
4/14/2024 4:38:00 PM | Baseball
Head coach Dan Skirka picks up win No. 150 at Murray State.
With Sunday's win, head coach Dan Skirka earned his 150th career win as a head coach.
SIU took the early lead in the first, scoring a run on a one-out RBI single. The Racers tied it up in the fifth after three scoreless frames between both teams on a Dustin Mercer RBI base hit to score Logan Bland.
The Salukis took back the lead in the bottom of the fifth, scoring two runs on two fielding errors to make it a 3-1 game.
Drew Vogel brought the Racers' deficit to one with a solo homer in the seventh for his ninth of the season and second-straight game sending one over the outfield fence. Jonathan Hogart then tied the game with an RBI knock before Taylor Howell gave the Racers a 5-3 lead with a two-run homer over the left field fence.
The Salukis drew closer scoring a run on a fielder's choice in the eighth to bring it to a 5-4 game, but Hogart answered by providing insurance runs on a two-run homer of his own in the ninth to give Murray State a three-run lead.
Nathan Holler earned his third win of the season, tossing 2 1/3 relief innings allowing just one run on two walks and no hits given up. Thomas Mcnabb earned his first save as a Racer, throwing the final two-thirds of the inning allowing no runs, no hits, no walks and a strikeout to end the game.
With Carson Garner's walk drawn in the fifth inning he extended his reached-base streak to 26 games. Vogel recorded his first four-hit game of 2024 and just the fourth game a Racer has recorded at least four hits in a game this year.
Vogel also stole his 12th base on Sunday, moving him into a tie for the 20th-most steals in a season in program history.
The Racers return to Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky for a midweek clash with the Southeast Missouri Redhawks on Tuesday, April 16 at 5 p.m. CT.
For more information on the Murray State baseball program, visit GoRacers.com or @RacersBaseball on Instagram and X.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Holler, Nathan (3-0)
L: Ben Riffe (1-2)
S: Mcnabb, Thomas (1)
Batting:
2B: Garner, Carson 1
HR: Vogel, Drew 1 ; Hogart, Jonathan 1 ; Howell, Taylor 1
RBI: Vogel, Drew 1 ; Mercer, Dustin 1 ; Hogart, Jonathan 3 ; Howell, Taylor 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Vogel, Drew 1 ; Mercer, Dustin 1 ; Garner, Carson 1 ; Hogart, Jonathan 2 ; Howell, Taylor 1 ; Bland, Logan 1
SB: Vogel, Drew 1 ; Hogart, Jonathan 1
HBP: Hogart, Jonathan 1
Batting:
HR: Jordan Bach 1
RBI: Mathieu Vallee 1 ; Cole Christman 2 ; Justin Keuss 1 ; Jordan Bach 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mathieu Vallee 2 ; Jake Allgeyer 1 ; Jordan Bach 2
HBP: Jake Allgeyer 1
