DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Murray State athletics has crossed into about the most uncharted territory imaginable tonight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time in school history, the Racer baseball program has punched a ticket to the ultimate destination for every college team in America \u2014 the College World Series in Omaha. It happened because the Racers pulled their second upset of the NCAA Baseball Championship, this time upending Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke on its home turf at Jack Coombs Field in Durham, North Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was not easy. In fact, for a time it appeared to be a setup for heartbreak after the Racers celebrated what they believed to be was the final out on a double play sparked by runner\u2019s interference at second base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alas, the play underwent video review and was, in fact, overturned \u2026 after the Racers had broken into yet another dogpile at the pitcher\u2019s mound, the third such occurrence of the postseason. And with the dangerous Blue Devils still with life \u2014 along with the motivation of seeking their first visit to Omaha since 1961\u2014 the Racers had to refocus, something that can be very hard to do after such a moment.<\/p>\n
However, refocus they did with right-handed relief pitcher Graham Kelham getting Duke cleanup hitter Jake Hyde to hit a harmless grounder to first baseman Luke Mistone for the final out \u2014 for real, this time \u2014 to seal a 5-4 win in the deciding Game 3 of the Durham Super Regional.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is great! God is great!\u201d said Murray State Head Coach Dan Skirka during a live interview with ESPN after the game. Tonight is believed to be the first time that a Murray State baseball game has been televised by ESPN\u2019s main network after the first two games of the series were aired by ESPNU.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I watched some of those games last night with (North Carolina Head Coach Scott Forbes, whose team lost its Super Regional series to Arizona) and (Louisville Head Coach Dan McDonnell, whose team earned its sixth CWS visit by defeating Miami), in victory and in loss, just praising and pointing everyone to the word and that\u2019s what we try to do, to lead these guys through this great game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to be the example and lead them and it\u2019s such a great group (one that continues its season with the best record in Racer history \u2014 now 44-15). We\u2019re so blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seconds later, Skirka was being chased by those players who eventually nailed him with multiple jugs of sports drink, constituting the most historic shower in Murray State history.<\/p>\n
It was the perfect culmination of a crazy night of baseball, one that started with outfielder Jonathan Hogart adding to his national lead by slugging his eighth leadoff home run of the season, one day after he managed that feat in igniting the Racers\u2019 19-9 runaway win over the Blue Devils (41-21) that tied the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Hogart was not finished and when he ripped his second no-doubt tater of the night to almost the same location well beyond the left-field fence in the top of the seventh inning, he had tied the game at 3-3. This came after Duke had taken a 3-2 lead in the fourth on Jake Berger\u2019s solo homer after second baseman Dom Decker\u2019s RBI single had extended the Racer lead to 2-0 in the first.<\/p>\n
However, the homers were not ending and it would be Mistone to supply the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth by leading off with a solo laser to left for a 4-3 lead. Outfielder Dan Tauken, the Racers\u2019 RBI leader from the 7 hole in the batting order but who had struggled tonight up to that point, burned the Duke outfield with a long triple to right field that plated catcher Will Vierling, who had walked for a 5-3 lead, sending a very strong Racer Nation contingent at Jack Coombs into a frenzy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support was just unbelievable. Racer Nation really showed out,\u201d said Hogart, who ended 2-for-5 at the plate to help drive an offense that outhit the Devils for the third straight time, 10-6.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, there was still work to do and the Racers were reminded that in the bottom of the eighth when Duke catcher Mason Winslow hit his second homer in as many days over the left-field fence to cut the lead to one run. That came off Kelham, who has faced every rough moments during the Racers\u2019 postseason run head on. He had three gutty saves in the Oxford Regional in Mississippi, including having to extinguish a rally from host and 2022 CWS champion Mississippi a week ago tonight, after the Rebels had seemed poised to pull a miraculous comeback from a nine-run deficit in the seventh.<\/p>\n
Tonight, Kelham took the mound in the seventh and his only blemishes were Winslow\u2019s homer, a walk and a hit-by-pitch that led off the ninth. He followed that by retiring dangerous Duke outfielder A.J. Gracia on a foul ball to left that was caught after a long run by Tauken. One out down, he faced hometown hero Ben Miller, who bounced a weak grounder toward Racer shortstop Conner Cunningham, who flipped the ball to Decker, who then was clipped by the sliding Wallace Clark, triggering the interference call and starting a celebration for the Racers \u2026 that lasted all of 10 seconds. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The replay overturned the call and gave cleanup hitter Jake Hyde the chance to steal a journey to Omaha from the Racers. Instead, Kelham, calm and cool, induced Hyde into a bouncer right to Mistone, who only had a few steps to quickly take before placing his foot on the bag, this time for the actual final out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first one was special,\u201d Mistone said. \u201cThen, we had to get it again and kind of reset. We all went for a mound visit and reminded ourselves that we\u2019ve got this.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there is no one we would rather have for this than Graham.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all of the emotions let loose, then have to turn around and do it again,\u201d said third baseman Carson Garner, who had two hits tonight after collecting three on Sunday. \u201cGraham did a great job shutting that thing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, we got to celebrate again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised, right?\u201d Skirka said of the most unusual circumstance in which his team found itself. \u201cWe talk about being tough and that\u2019s another example. Another team could\u2019ve melted \u2026 could\u2019ve folded \u2026 lost focus. I\u2019m not surprised they handled that like they\u2019ve handled everything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, our backs were against the wall (in Oxford). It was winner take all (after the Racers led, 12-3, and had to withstand a tremendous comeback attempt from Ole Miss before emerging with a nerve-racking 12-11 win). Tonight, it was winner take all. Yesterday, we had to win to force tonight. I don\u2019t know \u2026 there\u2019s something about those situations that brings out the best in those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decker concluded a wonderful super regional in which he went 8-for-14 (.571) at the plate with seven RBIs. He was 2-for-4 tonight with an RBI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Racer defense also helped make all of this possible by not committing a single error in this series, continuing its at-times stupendous glove work. This included outfielder Dustin Mercer, who had the two most memorable plays of the series with an incredible tumbling catch over the right-field bullpen pitching mound in Saturday\u2019s 7-4 loss to the Devils and tonight\u2019s leaping catch above the right-field fence to rob Gracia of what would have been a two-run tater and a 4-3 Duke lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it has not set in \u2026 and it never will,\u201d Hogart said after being asked about the thought of Murray State actually going to Omaha. \u201cMan! This is surreal. This is baseball paradise. We get to go do this on the biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Murray State athletics has crossed into about the most uncharted territory imaginable tonight.\u00a0 For the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2314,2313,648,2335,19,2310,2304,2308,14532,1694,2341,2307,185,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-92727","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-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-competitions","12":"tag-baseball-finals","13":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","14":"tag-college-baseball","15":"tag-home-run","16":"tag-major-league-baseball","17":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","18":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","19":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","20":"tag-murray-state-racers-men","21":"tag-ncaa","22":"tag-ncaa-baseball","23":"tag-outdoor-sports","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-team-sports","26":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114657649221541389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92727","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=92727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}