Life in the Valley

Murray State Downs Host Rebels, 12-9, in 15 Innings

One beautiful swing by Drew Vogel ended a 5-inning barrage of goose eggs, while simultaneously giving Murray State a 4-run lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Vogel’s 15th-inning grand slam boosted the Racers past Mississippi, 12-9, in a 5-hour, 40-minute marathon fit for an NCAA Regional rather than a Wednesday night late in the regular season.

Vogel came to the plate already 1-for-5 on the night with an RBI and a run scored, have doubled in a run in Murray State’s 4-run 7th, in which he also scored on Jonathan Hogart’s 3-run homer that tied the game at 7 as the Racers (31-18, 11-10 MVC) rallied from a 7-3 deficit. Riley Hawthorne had singled in the 15th, then Ethan Krizen and Parker Estes walked against Ole Miss reliever J.T. Quinn – one of 10 Rebels pitchers to work in the game. But Vogel would face the 9th hurler of the group – Brayden Jones.

Vogel drove Jones’ 2nd pitch deep to center, carrying it over the fence and into the Oxford night. There had been no scoring since a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 9th tied the game at 8, and the atmosphere had been pretty quiet as 0 after 0 was posted on the scoreboard. That all changed with the hoots and hollers from the Murray State dugout as Vogel rounded the bases.

The game wasn’t over, of course, and Ole Miss didn’t go down quietly, as Treyson Hughes curved a fly ball just inside the pole in right field to cut the Murray lead to 12-9, but that closed the scoring. Malik Pogue, the pitching star of the night, finished off a 5-inning relief effort by getting Trenton Lyons to fly out to end the game. Pogue, a redshirt senior from Martin, Tenn., set a season-high for innings, while allowing just 1 run on 3 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts over 74 pitches (4.93 pitches per out).

Vogel, who leads the Racers with a .328 average and hits (65), now has 17 homers and 53 RBIs on the season. He’s one short of Taylor Howell for the team lead in dingers, and 3 short of Howell in RBIs. Vogel now has a 1.091 OPS. As a team, the Racers have hit 89 homers in 49 games.

Pogue improved to 2-0 on the season with the win. He’s fanned 19 batters in 16 1/3 innings this season.

Murray State returns home to play Valparaiso in the next-to-last conference series of the season starting Friday. Ole Miss (25-23, 9-15 SEC), the 2022 national champion, is home to 3rd-ranked Texas A&M.

The win was just the MVC’s 2nd against the SEC in 28 tries this season. Before tonight, the only other win came back on Feb. 24, when Belmont won, 11-2, at South Carolina.

Thursday on Valley Diamonds: All is quiet.

If You’re Still Starved for More College Baseball: Speaking of SEC teams, a pair that are ranked start a series Thursday, as #15 Georgia visits #13 South Carolina. Game 1 of that series is at 7 p.m. Central Thursday on ESPN2.