Life in the Valley

Murray State Plays Monday for the Right to Go to Omaha

A day after an uncharacteristic Game 1 where Murray State failed to get even 1 extra-base hit, the Racers went into full demolition mode Sunday, devastating the Duke Blue Devils, 19-9, in Game 2 of the Durham Super Regional.

The teams will play Monday (6 p.m. Central) with the winner advancing to the College World Series and a date with UCLA in the opening round. Murray State has never been to Omaha before. Duke has been 3 times, but not since 1961.

For a hot moment, things weren’t going well for Murray State. A.J. Gracia and Ben Miller both homered in the 1st to give Duke (41-20) a 2-0 lead. The Blue Devils eventually hit 5 homers, but critically for the Racers, 4 of them were solo shots.

Murray State wasted no time in responding. Jonathan Hogart took Kyle Johnson’s first pitch in the bottom of the 1st out of the park to cut Duke’s lead in half. Luke Mistone and Will Vierling singled in runs to give the Racers (43-15) a 3-2 lead after 1. Johnson fanned 3 straight to get out of the jam – 1 day after his 4-hit, 5-RBI day at the plate had given Duke a 1-0 edge in the series.

But Murray State was far from done. Carson Garner’s 2-run homer in the 2nd made it 5-2. And after shaking off a Duke jab on Wallace Clark’s solo homer in the 3rd, the Racers pulled away in the 4th. Dom Decker doubled home 2 runs as part of a 5-run outburst. That made it 10-3.

However, if you’ve followed the Racers in this NCAA Tournament, you know that A lot-to-3 leads haven’t been great so far, and Duke made things scary in the 6th, scoring 5 times. Ben Rounds doubled in two and scored on a wild pitch, then Macon Winslow hit Duke’s lone multi-run homer of the game, a 2-run shot that suddenly dropped Murray State’s advantage to 10-8.

This time, however, Racer fans needn’t have worried. Needing shutdown innings from their relievers to try and finish their comeback and move on to Omaha, the Blue Devils instead were pounded into submission in the 7th, as Murray State scored 9 runs to take a 19-8 lead. Decker again drove in 2, this time with a single. Vierling doubled in 2, then Dan Tauken and Conner Cunningham hit 2-run homers. It left Blue Devil fans fleeing for the exits, perhaps to go home and toast North Carolina’s 4-3 loss to Arizona today in Chapel Hill that ended the rival Tar Heels’ season.

But that would be the limit to Duke’s happiness on this day. Rounds hit a consolation solo homer in the 8th to complete the scoring.

Murray State used just 3 pitches, as starter Issac Silva (9-2) went 5 1/3 innings, and though he gave up 6 runs on 6 hits, his ability to get into the 6th on 84 pitches was critical to the Racers’ success. Jacob Hustedde finished the 6th before Graham Kelham earned a 3-inning save, throwing 43 pitches and striking out 3 on 1 run and 1 hit. It was Kelham’s 9th save.

Duke used 8 pitchers total as Johnson left after just 3 innings, charged with 6 runs on 6 hits. Not among them was bullpen ace Reid Easterly, who closed out Saturday’s win. Five of the Duke relievers threw fewer than 20 pitches.

Murray State outhit Duke, 17-8. Dustin Mercer returned to his Oxford Regional form, going 4-for-6 with 3 runs. Decker and Vierling each drove in 4. Hogart, Mercer, Garner, and Cunningham all scored 3 runs each. Nico Bermeo was the lone starter without a hit, but he walked and scored, then was hit by a pitch right before Cunningham’s homer in the 7th.

The way games are going in Corvallis and Baton Rouge as of this writing, Monday’s Game 3 could be the main event in the country, with the other 7 College World Series entrants already decided. Confirmed are Coastal Carolina, Arizona, UCLA, Louisville, and Arkansas. LSU and Oregon State appear poised to join that quintet.

We’ll find out Monday if Murray State can crash the party.

Notes: Murray State had 7 extra-base hits in Game 2. … Duke has just 14 hits in the series. … Gracia went 1-for-3 with 2 runs and 2 walks in his return from a 1-game NCAA suspension. … Duke is 0-6 all-time in Super Regional games where it has a chance to clinch a berth in the College World Series. Twice, in 2019 at Vanderbilt and 2023 at Virginia, the Blue Devils won Game 1 only to lose the series. … Murray State has now scored 516 runs this season, 14th in the country. Duke has scored 512. Arkansas (534) is the highest-scoring team left in the NCAA Tournament. … Duke leads the country in walks drawn.

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.