Trip to Durham to Face Duke in Super Regional Next for Murray State
For the third season in a row, a Missouri Valley Conference baseball team has advanced to Super Regionals – the sport’s version of the Sweet 16. Murray State won the NCAA Oxford Regional Monday night, outlasting host Mississippi, 12-11. Ole Miss, SEC Tournament finalists and 2022 College World Series champions, almost completely erased a 12-3 deficit, but reliever Graham Kelham got Hayden Federico to fly to center fielder Jonathan Hogart for the final out.
Murray State joins Indiana State (2023) and Evansville (2024) as Valley teams to advance this far in the last 3 seasons. The Sycamores’ story was a little different, as they hosted a regional and prevailed, before falling in 2 games at TCU (a series the Sycamores were supposed to host, but anyway). Last season, Evansville beat East Carolina to win the Greenville Regional, then took #1 national seed Tennessee to 3 games in Knoxville before bowing out. The Vols went on to win the College World Series.
The Racers are just the 10th 4th-seed under the current format to win a regional. Three of those teams advanced to the College World Series and one – Fresno State in 2008 – won the national championship.
And while both UE and Murray State were blown out in Game 6 of their regionals by the host, only to come back and win by a run the next day, that is perhaps where the similarities end between the stories. It can be argued pretty effectively that this Oxford Regional Murray State won was the toughest of the 3 I referenced. Not only did it feature Ole Miss playing at home where they seem to hit a billionty home runs, but it also featured ACC regular-season champion Georgia Tech, and a mid-major who had a stellar year in Western Kentucky, though the Racers and Hilltoppers didn’t get a chance to renew acquaintances in this regional.
I said on X that I thought Murray State was the best equipped MVC team to make a run similar to that of UE last season. The Racers’ hitting never disappointed, and it was the bats that staked them to the 9-run lead last night. Dustin Mercer, who was a doubles machine all weekend and received Regional Most Outstanding Player honors, turned his game up a notch with the title on the line, lashing an RBI triple down the right-field line in the 5th inning.
Carson Garner went 3-for-6 with 2 doubles. The aforementioned Hogart was 2-for-5 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs. Luke Mistone had 4 hits, 3 runs, and 2 driven in. In fact, 8 different Racers drove in at least 1 run and 7 scored at least once. Dom Decker scored 3 times, going 3-for-5.
But the 12 runs and 19 hits weren’t anything necessarily new for the Racers. Nor was the fact that on the biggest stage to this point, Murray State played errorless baseball (Ole Miss had 2 blunders). But even in a 12-11 game, the biggest story for the Racers in this one was pitching.
To wit, Murray State’s top 2 starters once again stepped up. Issac Silva, who pitched Saturday in the 1-0 game vs. Georgia Tech, throwing 84 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, took the ball for head coach Dan Skirka Monday on 1 day of rest. Silva made the most of whatever he could muster, throwing 71 pitches over 4 innings, holding Ole Miss to 3 runs on 2 hits with 4 strikeouts. Most importantly, he didn’t walk anyone.
Silva then gave way to Nic Schutte, whose right arm was pretty much bionic this weekend. He threw 119 pitches in Friday’s opening win over the Rebels, going 6 1/3 innings in Murray State’s 9-6 victory. Monday, he got 7 more outs on 43 pitches, walking just 1 and striking out 5. He was charged with 3 runs, but the ability of Silva and Schutte to get Murray State deep into the game was key, despite the Ole Miss comeback.
That rally seemed to reach its zenith in the 7th. Down 12-3, Ole Miss had 5 in and 2 on with Kelham on the mound and Swayze Field rocking. Then, Kelham hit Rebel Goliath Judd Utermark in the left arm, the lead arm for the right-handed hitter. It appeared Ole Miss would have the bases loaded and 1 out, ready to take control.
However, a replay review showed Utermark moved his arm slightly into the path of Kelham’s pitch, meaning it was a strike instead. Utermark seemed a bit shaken up by being hit, and once back in the box, he struck out swinging on an 0-2 pitch. Kelham then fanned Issac Humphrey as well to end the inning.
Yes, Mississippi got 3 more in the 8th on Brayden Randle’s homer to cut the lead to 12-11, but Kelham once again quelled that uprising, striking out Will Furniss and Utermark to end the frame with 2 on.
In the 9th, Kelham struck out Humphrey again, then Campbell Smithwick to put Murray on the brink, before Federico’s fly ball landed easily in Hogart’s glove to commence the dogpile near the mound. Kelham got the final 8 outs – 6 by strikeout, throwing 70 pitches. It took 194 pitches for Silva, Schutte, Jacob Hustedde, and Kelham to get the Racers to Super Regionals, but they never stopped fighting on any of them. Schutte got credit for his 8th win, improving to 8-3.
The Racers, now 42-14 on the season, hit the road again this weekend to take on the Duke Blue Devils (40-19) in a best-of-3 series, with the winner advancing to the College World Series. Duke won the Athens Regional, hosted by Georgia, which also featured Oklahoma State and Binghamton.
Murray State is within striking distance of Omaha for the 2nd time in its history. In 1979, the Racers beat Tulane and New Orleans to reach the Starkville Regional final, but were defeated twice by host Mississippi State, 8-6 and 18-8, as the Bulldogs went on to the College World Series instead. Duke has made 3 appearances in Omaha, but none in the last 64 years.
After what Murray State accomplished in Oxford, there’s reason to believe the Racers can win this Super. Duke is a very good team, but so is Ole Miss and so is Georgia Tech, and the Racers went 3-1 against them this weekend. Georgia Tech took 2 of 3 at Duke during the regular season.
I can’t say that Murray State *will* win this Super Regional, but this is the best chance the Valley has had of sending a team to Omaha since Dallas Baptist went a game up on Virginia in a 2021 Super Regional, only to lose 2 straight.
But with Dallas Baptist gone and Missouri State leaving, the landscape of the Valley has changed drastically since then. These accomplishments by Murray State, along with Evansville and Indiana State before them, are more meaningful in an era where the Valley hasn’t quite held the same reputation as in past years.
When it comes to the postseason, however, Valley teams keep showing out. MVC teams are now 11-4 in regionals from 2023-25. Teams the MVC has beaten during that time include Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Illinois, and East Carolina, among others.
Some will continue to doubt, but Murray State has proved once again that Valley Ball is a force to be reckoned with.
Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.
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