Offense & Defense Shines For Racers in MVC Victory

Thursday, May 22

Normal, Ill.

7 p.m.

Murray State

37-13, 0

Southern Illinois

37-20, 0

Southern Illinois

Murray State

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

5/22/2025 6:31:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score MVC Tournament Central Box Score (PDF)

The Racers are 2-0 as they chase the MVC Tournament championship

The Murray State Racers posted a 10-5 victory over the Southern Illinois Salukis at the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Duffy Bass Field in Normal, Illinois.

The Racers (37-13) are 2-0 in the MVC Tournament and move into a Friday game at 7 p.m. MSU awaits the winner of the 11 a.m. game between of No. 2 Missouri State and No. 4 UIC.

After falling behind 2-0 in the third inning, the Racers hit the Salukis with four runs in the bottom of the inning, most of it from the 16^th home run of the season by MSU's Jonathan Hogart.

The catch of the year for the Racers came in the top of the seventh when SIU's Michael Mylott hit what was going to be a three-run homer, the only person who could stop it was Dan Tauken, who used all of his 6-3 frame to make a leaping catch to keep the Racers at least in a tie 5-5 as the inning ended.

The Racers took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh on RBI hits by pinch hitter Nico Bermeo and Connor Cunningham and a sac fly from Dustin Mercer for a 8-5 lead and added two more runs in the eighth on a double by Tauken.

Nic Schutte tossed 6.1 solid innings, giving five runs on nine hits with six walks and five strikeouts and was relieved by Dylan Zentko, who got the win on 2.2 innings of 2-hit pitching.

Game Notes

The Racers ended up winning three of the four meetings they had with Southern Illinois this season.
Jonathan Hogart's homer gave him the team lead with 16 and it was his 30th in his MSU career.
He's also the first Racer to have back-to-back games with a home run in MVC Tournament history.
Dustin Mercer started the game 4-for-4 (ended 4-for-5), tied his season-best of four hits in a game, after he was 4-for-4 vs Bradley (April 7).
Nic Schutte's outing took him into the seventh where he recorded one out and threw 107 pitches and recorded his eighth quality start of the season.
Dom Decker pushed his streak of reaching base to 32 games.
Decker leads the MVC in on base percentage at .510, 23^rd in NCAA D-I.
The Racers have 37 wins as they moved to the second-most total wins for a single season in program history, as the teams from 1974 and 1976 all won 36 times.
The Racers may still have a chance to make a run at the 40 wins that the team from 1975 had as the most in program history.
The Racers are now 4-4 in the MVC Tournament in their third appearance in the event.
The Racers were the No. 2 seed in 2024 and the No. 6 seed in their first season in the MVC in 2023.
Murray State is seeking its first conference tournament title since Mike Thieke's 2003 team won the OVC Tournament title in Paducah, Ky.
In 2003, MSU played in the Hattiesburg Regional and lost to Baylor and Southern Miss.

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