DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Murray State does not appear to have drawn a particularly imposing opponent for its first-ever venture to the NCAA Baseball Championship Super Regionals.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a combination of a rash of\u00a0upsets and simply the way the schedule was composed, the Racers are not facing a college baseball blue blood. They are not in the ring with a team that knows the streets of Omaha such as Southeastern Conference monsters Tennessee (defending College World Series champion), Louisiana State (2023 CWS winner) or Arkansas. Vanderbilt and Texas are not in consideration because they were bounced in the regionals.<\/p>\n
They also avoided more recent powerhouses like Oregon State (a CWS champ not too long ago),\u00a0 Coastal Carolina and, from their home commonwealth \u2014 Louisville.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they were given was a very good team from a very good league \u2014 Atlantic Coast Conference representative Duke, seeking its first CWS appearance in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n
Yet, these teams appear to be very similar in some areas. There is also one very interesting common opponent that these teams have faced this season, one that figures to give the underdog Racers a strong feeling of comfort as Saturday\u2019s high noon first pitch approaches at Jack Coombs Field in Durham.<\/p>\n
Duke enters Saturday with a 40-19 record \u2014 which is three more games than the Racers have played (a school-record mark of 42-14), which probably does nothing more than indicate that the Blue Devils have had some friendlier weather conditions this spring. In case people have forgotten, the Racers did lose a few games to rain, including the final two games of what was to have been the deciding series for the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship against visiting Missouri State (the two teams split that crown).<\/p>\n
When the teams have been able to play, they have been close to one another when it comes to statistics. Duke has a slight edge in scoring \u2014 496-493 \u2014 while the Racers had the higher batting average \u2014 .306 to .290<\/p>\n
Both teams are very patient at the plate with Duke having drawn a hefty 395 walks and having batters hit by pitches 106 times. The Racers are also well above the 300 mark in walks (334) and have reached base 80 times via being hit by pitches. This was something Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall noted as a strong\u00a0 quality for the Racers during last week\u2019s Oxford Regional, after his team dropped a wild 13-11 decision in the winner\u2019s bracket game last Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ve just got to credit them. They walk a lot and they don\u2019t strike out much,\u201d said the Tech legend (whose 34-year career was ended Sunday with a loss to host Mississippi) after he had watched Murray State reach base seven times on walks, duplicating its total from the previous night\u2019s 9-6 win over Ole Miss.<\/p>\n
So far, the Racers have struck out 385 times, exactly 100 fewer than Duke. Late in the regular season, bat discipline became a point of emphasis for Racers Head Coach Dan Skirka, especially ahead of the final series with Mo State at Johnny Reagan Field.<\/p>\n
All the Racers did in what became the only game of that series was draw six walks and reach base a very unusual seven times by way of being hit by pitches. One of those resulted in an RBI with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had so many walks and hit-by-pitch. We had talked about that and we took our hit-by-pitches. I\u2019m proud of them for that. That\u2019s what a team does,\u201d Skirka said that night.<\/p>\n
The Racers had four of the top 15 hitters in the Missouri Valley Conference this season, led by outfielder Dustin Mercer (.347), who has caught fire since postseason play arrived. A 4-for-5 night at the plate resulted in five RBIs in the 10-5 win over Mo State that clinched the program\u2019s first-ever Valley tournament title. That was a big reason he was named Most Outstanding Player, the same honor he earned after going a sizzling 10-for-18 (.555) in the Oxford Regional.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of what Coach Skirk says \u2026 it all starts with the process and it doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re facing. The process stays the same,\u201d said Mercer, who ended the season seventh in The Valley in batting.<\/p>\n
He was followed by second baseman Dom Decker in eighth (.340), first baseman Luke Mistone in 10th (.338) and outfielder Jonathan Hogart in 12th (.336). The Racers tied with Southern Illinois for the top spot in The Valley with both teams ending the regular season ranked in the top 50 nationally in several offensive categories.<\/p>\n
Duke was eighth in the 16-team ACC, its best hitter being infielder Ben Miller at .325 (31st in the league). Infielder Sam Harris (first base\/outfield) is next at 50th (.311) with infielder Wallace Clark 52nd (.310).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams were very highly ranked in their respective leagues in fielding. Duke was second in the ACC with a 0.979 fielding percentage and only 47 errors. The Devils were also perfect in the field, not committing an error in going undefeated in the Athens Regional that was hosted by SEC rep Georgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Racers were not shabby either, leading The Valley in fielding percentage (0.978) and tied for the lead for fewest errors (45). Murray State only committed one error in winning The Valley tourney (going 4-0) and flashed some serious leather in Oxford, while committing only two miscues in the field in four games.<\/p>\n
The big variable \u2014 pitching<\/p>\n
It has been said many times about baseball since a former military general named Abner Doubleday created the game so many years ago in a Cooperstown, New York cow pasture \u2014 good pitching always beats good hitting.<\/p>\n
Throughout time, this has usually been proven with many a powerful offense being neutralized by hurlers who could throw smoke to others who used excellent location.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering Saturday, Duke has the fourth-best staff in the ACC (a league that still has four other teams \u2014 Florida State and North Carolina, both CWS qualifiers a year ago \u2014 and Miami (Fla.) and Louisville, who are playing one another this weekend in Louisville). The Devils have a 4.83 ERA and were very good in Athens, allowing only 10 runs in three games, only five total in the final two games.<\/p>\n
Those two games were against big-bopper teams \u2014 the host Bulldogs and Big 12 superpower and frequent Omaha guest Oklahoma State \u2014 with those wins coming by respective scores of 6-3 and 3-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duke\u2019s ace is one of the best in the ACC \u2014 left hander Reid Easterly, who is 9-2 this season with a 3.04 ERA and did not allow a hard-hitting Okie State team one hit in the final two innings of the regional clincher. However, he is not alone.<\/p>\n
Henry Zatkowski is another southpaw who started that regional championship game and allowed only four hits in almost five full innings. And still another lefty is the Devils\u2019 third-best hurler \u2014 Owen Proksch (3-3 and 21st in the ACC with a 4.83 ERA) who went six innings and allowed three hits and two runs in in six innings in the first win over Okie State (12-5).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a good team and they\u2019ve got some really good left-handed pitchers. They\u2019re scrappy and they won a really tough regional in Georgia. With a chance to win a Super Regional and go to Omaha (for the first time since the program reached the CWS three times between 1952 and \u201961), they\u2019ll be ready,\u201d Skirka said.<\/p>\n
However, as strong as the offenses faced in Athens were for Duke, what the Racers were having to try and stop in Oxford may have been more imposing. Where Georgia seemed to lose a little steam at the end of the season, Murray State was facing an Ole Miss team operating at full power after coming within a run of winning the SEC Tournament.<\/p>\n
The Rebels hit 19 home runs in the regional and Duke\u2019s ACC compatriot \u2014 Tech \u2014 also entered Oxford with a reputation for hard hitting. The Racers did surrender runs, lots of them \u2014 47 to be exact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, when the Racers had to have it, they had clutch performances on the mound. Righty reliever Jacob Hustedde (in the first Ole Miss win) and lefty Dylan Zentko (Tech) were huge. Ace righty Isaac Silva went five innings against Tech, then got the start and was very good in four innings Monday against Ole Miss.<\/p>\n
The pitching heroes of the weekend, though, were righty starter Nic Schutte (reached the seventh in the first win over Ole Miss, then followed Silva with almost three full innings in the winner-take-all win on Monday) and righty closer Graham Kelham, who stopped big ninth-inning uprisings by the Rebels last Friday and the Yellowjackets on Saturday. Then, with the program\u2019s first-ever regional title in peril, he recorded two monster strikeouts to close the eighth inning with the Racers still in possession of the lead.<\/p>\n
He then finished the Rebels by retiring them in order in the ninth, the first two batters by strikeout. The Racers were the top pitching staff in The Valley this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t describe that. That\u2019s just guts,\u201d Skirka told the SEC Network after Monday\u2019s history-making win. \u201cSilva wanted the ball again (two days after the start against Tech) and Schutte was going after 120 pitches (last Friday).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGraham Kelham has the slowest heartbeat in America. We were just confident in him. It was ride or die there at the end of the game. That was just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
About that common opponent<\/p>\n
Murray State only saw Tech once this season. Duke saw the Jackets three times.<\/p>\n
Duke was 1-2. The Racers, though, were meeting Tech after both had won their first game in the regional and, with the Jackets still carrying a major chip on their shoulders after feeling they should have been hosting\u00a0 instead of going on the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, Murray State was going to face Tech\u2019s best shot last Saturday, and, yes, they got it. Tech opened the game by scoring three times in the opening frame and, after bludgeoning fellow commonwealth representative Western Kentucky the previous day, it seemed likely the Jackets\u2019 sting was too intense for the Racers.<\/p>\n
Then, the Racers caught the Jackets with a mighty response tail swat, scoring five times in their first at-bat, then adding five more runs in the fourth for a stunning 10-3 lead. In return, Tech regained its sting and jabbed the Racers for seven runs in the fifth to tie the game.<\/p>\n
Yet, down the stretch, it was the Racers finding the necessary strength and stamina to reach the finish line, getting key home runs from Hogart and outfielder Dan Tauken, who has had an outstanding postseason so far, to outscore Tech, 3-1, in the final 2 1\/2 innings. Two nights later, the Racers turned a similar trick, having to withstand a furious Ole Miss rally from 12-3 down in the seventh to hold on for a one-run win in a heated atmosphere at 12,000-seat Swayze Field that is regarded by many as the toughest home field in college baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like we didn\u2019t show up,\u201d said Ole Miss Head Coach Mike Bianco, the man who led the Rebels to the CWS title in 2022. \u201cThey did and we got beat. You get to this point of the season and you\u2019ve got to play or you lose because the other teams are good. Nobody gets to this point without being good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to credit them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game can be viewed on ESPNU, starting at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Murray State does not appear to have drawn a particularly imposing opponent for its first-ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[2315,2309,2351,5,648,2330,3520,19,2308,14532,1694,2341,2307,2320,185,2350,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-85193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-base-on-balls","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-college-baseball","13":"tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","14":"tag-hit-by-pitch","15":"tag-major-league-baseball","16":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","17":"tag-murray-state-racers-men","18":"tag-ncaa","19":"tag-ncaa-baseball","20":"tag-outdoor-sports","21":"tag-pitcher","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-strikeout","24":"tag-team-sports","25":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114640025460760114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}