Story by Keith Jaco
Staff writer
rjaco@murraystate.edu
After blowing a one-run lead in the ninth inning, Murray State Racer baseball was defeated by the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders in extra innings on Tuesday, April 2.
Head Coach Dan Skirka believed the Racers’ time off was less of an advantage and tipped his cap to the Blue Raider pitching staff.
“We showed a little rust from being off over the weekend,” Skirka said. “It’s been six days since we’ve seen live pitching but that lefty they brought in has good numbers this year and the righty [Tyler] Holcombe did a good job too. We just have to get better offensively.”
The Racers jumped on the MTSU pitching early, loading the bases with no outs to begin the game. Senior shortstop Jaron Robinson took advantage for Murray State, grounding out to shortstop to score senior center fielder Tyler Duke, giving the Racers a 1-0 lead.
Junior designated hitter Sean Darmafall followed Robinson’s RBI groundout with a two-out double, scoring junior right fielder Brock Anderson and redshirt sophomore left fielder Jake Slunder.
Junior third baseman Jordan Cozart kept the Racer rally going with an RBI single to left field, scoring Darmafall and giving the Racers a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first.
The Blue Raiders responded with one run in the home half of the first on a solo home run by junior catcher Aaron Antonini.
Despite early scoring from each team, the Racers and Blue Raiders went scoreless leading up to the top of the sixth inning as Murray State added to its lead on a RBI sacrifice fly by Darmafall, scoring Robinson to extend the Racer lead back to four, 5-1.
MTSU responded once again in the bottom of the sixth, this time with three runs to cut the Racer lead to one, 5-4.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Racers clinged to a one-run lead with senior right-handed pitcher Peyton Hayes coming on to relieve junior right-handed pitcher Justin Thomas.
Following a lead-off double by Blue Raider redshirt junior center fielder Darrell Freeman Jr., Antonini singled down the right field line to tie the game at five. The Racers stopped the bleeding in the ninth, sending the game to extra-innings.
In extras, Murray State and MTSU traded scoreless frames for three innings leading up to the bottom of the 13th. In the home half of the 13th, the Blue Raiders walked-off on a three-run blast by sophomore left-handed pitcher Peyton Wiggington.
Wiggington’s game-winning hit was his first home run and RBIs of the season.
Skirka said the Racers are ready to put this one behind the team and prepare for their matchup with Missouri State.
“We’ll be ready to go,” Skirka said. “That’s the great thing about baseball: we get to turn around and crank it up again tomorrow, this time at home against a good club so I’m looking forward to our guys being better and being ready to go.”
Murray State will return home for a matchup with Missouri State at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, at Reagan Field.