MURRAY — Occasionally, defending Missouri Valley Conference and NCAA Super Regional baseball champion Murray State takes its act outside of Murray for specified home games.

Today is one of those occasions as the Racers play what is believed to be their first-ever contest at Edward Jones Field on the McCracken County High School campus in nearby Paducah. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. as the Racers face Kentucky State.

The Racers will be trying to return to the winning track after taking a sweep over the weekend against a very good Central Florida program (9-5) in Orlando. UCF — a team that has already faced two national bluebloods in defending College World Series champion Louisiana State and in-state force Miami (Fla,) — defeated the Racers (10-6) by scores of 8-3, 4-0 and 10-9.

The final game of the series had to leave a bitter taste for the Racers as they were unable to hold a five-run lead in the ninth inning against the Knights. Murray State had gained that lead by scoring five times in the top of the eighth, only to surrender six runs in UCF’s final at-bat.

The problem for the Racers was the Knights saturated the basepaths. The first three batters all reached base with the fourth getting a two-run single. From that point, UCF had a runner on either second or third every at-bat. UCF also did not have a strikeout as they used bunts and singles to finish the rally.

Until then, the day had belonged to Racer third baseman Anthony Perritano, who was 3-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs and two runs scored. He had a solo home run in the second inning and an RBI double in the seventh that pulled the Racers within 4-3 before Landon Moran’s RBI fielder’s choice tied the game,

Connor Chisolm started the big eighth inning for the Racers with a solo homer, Perritano had a bases-loaded walk and Tyler Butina appeared to give them control with a bases-loaded double.The Racers also did a superb job of scoring once runners were on base as they only left two stranded, compared to nine for the Knights. 

Saturday night, Racer righthander Jacob Hustedde allowed only three hits and an unearned run in five innings but Murray State could not dent the scoreboard. UCF hurler Matt Sauser only allowed four hits and retired the first 11 batters.

On Friday, the Racers tied the game, 2-2, in the sixth inning but UCF responded with four runs in its half of the sixth and added two more in the seventh. Kainen Jorge’s solo blast in the fourth tied the game, 1-1, then Daylan Pena tied it again in the sixth with a sacrifice fly. 

The Racers were outhit, 14-8, with Jorge finishing 2-for-4 with the homer and two runs scored. Teammates Luke Mistone and Kristofer Hokenson were also 2-for-4.

Now, Murray State faces a Kentucky State team that is 1-16 this season and had the distinction of becoming the team to surrender the most runs ever in Murray State game when the Racers beat the Thoroughbreds, 38-1, last year at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray. The Racers also had 35 RBIs, also a record.

That single-game runs record had stood for about 75 years. The previous record was 31.