Life in the Valley

Racers Eliminated After Losses to UIC, Indiana State

Some 14 weeks ago, Murray State began its quest in the 2024 college baseball season hoping to first make the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, then make a run, then hopefully make NCAA Regionals.

We often say here that the college baseball season goes by way too fast. And it does. And it goes by faster every year, it seems like. But for the Murray State Racers, today went by a little too fast.

Forced to play UIC in today’s 2nd game, with the loser having to come right back and play top-seed Indiana State in an elimination game, the Racers picked a bad day to have a bad day, falling 12-2 to the Flames, then losing 11-4 to the 20th-ranked Sycamores.

The latter game started at 6:25 p.m. Central time, thanks in part to some weather delays today in Evansville. And the schedule had already been adjusted due to Wednesday’s weather delay and the length of the Southern Illinois/Indiana State game that ended the night and forced the UIC/Murray State game to today. The start time was just about an hour before the scheduled start time of the 4th and final game of the day – between Southern Illinois, unbeaten in the tournament so far, and Illinois State, trying to come back through the loser’s bracket after having eliminated Belmont to start today’s play.

I can’t help but wonder if Murray State could have been given a couple hours to prepare while Southern Illinois and Illinois State played the 3rd game instead at their regularly scheduled time, even it meant a bit longer of a delay between games. Fans would have understood and I’m quite sure the teams would have, as well. Then Murray State and Indiana State could have met to wrap up the day. Long day sure, but maybe more competitive.

Instead, Murray State played what amounted to a doubleheader and never really recovered after UIC touched up ace Cade Vernon for 8 runs in 2 1/3 innings, taking an 8-2 lead in the 3rd inning and never looking back in a 12-2 win that was called for the run rule after 7 innings. UIC (35-18) added 3 more runs in the 4th to make it 11-2. Ryan Nagelbach homered and drove in 4 runs for the Flames, while Zane Zielinski, Kendal Ewell, and Jackson Bessette all had 2 RBIs each. Zielinski had a perfect day, going 3-for-3 with a walk and a sacrifice bunt.

Zak Gould got the win for the Flames, pitching 3 scoreless relief innings and giving up just 2 hits with 0 walks. He got 9 outs on just 32 pitches, a 3.56 pitch-per-out clip that would translate into a 96-pitch 9-inning complete game. Dustin Mercer homered for Murray State, which was held to 5 hits overall. Ethan Krizen’s double was the Racers’ only other extra-base hit.

Vernon’s loss was just his 3rd of the season against 9 wins – which led the MVC.

To the Racers’ credit, they did show some spark to start the game against the Sycamores, scoring 3 runs in the 2nd inning to take the early lead. Krizen drove in the first run with a single, then Drew Vogel’s single combined with an error brought home 2 more runs.

But the Murray State (37-20) lead didn’t last long, as leads don’t usually against Indiana State. The Sycamores scored 4 in the 3rd, 2 coming in on a Luis Hernandez double. Randal Diaz homered in the 5th and added a sac fly in the 6th as Indiana State scored 5 more runs combined in those 2 innings to break the game open and make it 9-3.

Jonathan Hogart hit a solo homer in the 7th for Murray State’s final run of the season. But even that was answered in the 8th, thanks to Adam Pottinger’s 2-run double that closed the scoring. Eight of the 9 Sycamore starters had at least 1 hit, and the top 5 in the order (Diaz, Dominic Listi, Hernandez, Parker Stinson, and Pottinger) combined to go 9-for-20 (.450) with 7 runs scored an all 11 Indiana State RBIs. Hernandez now has 73 RBIs on the season with 83 hits.

Murray State got Indiana State starter and Valley Pitcher of the Year Brennyn Cutts out of the game in the 2nd inning, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Sycamores, as Zach Davidson finished the game (7 1/3 IP), allowing just 1 run on 3 hits with 1 walk and 14 – that’s right I wrote it – 14 strikeouts. Davidson has fanned 80 batters in 52 1/3 innings this season, a K/9 IP ratio of 13.76. He’s also only walked 17.

So while UIC and Indiana State move on to Friday, the Racers are left to wonder what might have been. While the final scores were both pretty decisive, it certainly is a rough way to go out to have your entire conference tournament come down to 1 day. Not sure if there’s a tweak to the tournament format that can fix that eventuality, but I’d suggest that maybe it’s worth looking at.

UIC will play 3rd-seed Evansville Friday at 11 a.m. Central in the 1st game of the day. Both teams are undefeated so far. Indiana State’s opponent and game time is to be determined as of this writing.