MURRAY — It had been a few years since Murray State outfielder Dustin Mercer has been part of a team championship celebration, such as the dogpile his team had Saturday night in Normal, Illinois.

He had won a state football championship at North Carolina powerhouse Weddington but that did not involve a dog pile. In fact, Weddington is kind of a “been-there-done-that” program, having won several state titles. After storming the field for a quick jumping huddle, they settle into a team photo.

Murray State had been climbing The Valley ladder since entering this powerful league in college baseball. Finally winning it was a big deal. The players were ready to unleash their emotion.

And after watching shortstop Conner Cunningham glove a pop fly for the final out of the Racers’ 10-5 win over Missouri State to capture the Racers’ first Valley title and fourth visit to the NCAA Tournament, Mercer ran toward the pitcher’s mound, where a mass of bodies had already assembled. He also was forming strategy as he ran.

“Yeah, I knew I wanted to try and hang around the outside for a little bit and get on top because we’ve got some big guys on this team and I knew I did not want them on top of me, for sure,” Mercer said, noting that position was reserved for freshman pitcher Reese Oakley, whose reward for, hands down, his best performance of his young college career (three solid innings in relief, including some key pitches to stop potential big innings for the Bears) was, first, being consumed by the wave, then sinking to the bottom. 

“But it’s awesome. It’s a feeling you can’t describe. That dogpile? I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”

Mercer did his part to cause that dogpile. A solid hitter throughout his Racer career, the right fielder saved perhaps his best game as a collegian for Saturday night. He was 4-for-5 at the plate with a double and a triple and was responsible for half of the Racers’ runs. 

He almost hit for the cycle as he added two singles as well.

“A homer away,” he said, smiling. “I mean, I just wanted to contribute and it working out that way was just awesome.”

However, Mercer’s bat was not the only thing for which he was known in this game. He also had three sterling plays with his glove on running catches, two of which requires dives to make. Those helped cap his selection as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. However, like his days in Weddington, he knew this had been a team effort and was quick to share the credit.

“We all had some great plays,” he said of outfield mates Jonathan Hogart and Dan Tauken, who both made superb catches in their own right during the tournament. Tauken, in fact, had the play of the week, a leaping catch last Thursday night to rob Valley arch rival Southern Illinois of a go-ahead home run on a fly ball that would have cleared the left-field wall.

“Trusting each other is huge. Hogey and I joke that we communicate without communicating because (when a ball is coming toward them) we already know which one of us is getting the ball most of the time. Having just insane amounts of trust out there is very helpful.”

Now, the Racers will try to give themselves reason for another dogpile. They start play in the NCAA Oxford Regional tonight against host Mississippi, 2022 College World Series champion and the eighth seed in this year’s tourney. 

That game is set for 7 at Swayze Field in Oxford. ESPN+ will air the game live.