Story by Adam Redfern
Staff writer
Murray State baseball dropped two of its three games in its weekend series against Illinois State University.
Game 1;
In the first game of the weekend series against the Redbirds, the Racers lost a tight 4-3 game.
Illinois State gained an early lead in the top of the second when sophomore catcher Tyson Hays tripled out to center earning his only RBI on the day. Sophomore infielder Tyler Carpenter grounded out to second in the next at-bat scoring Hays.
The Redbirds built onto their lead in the top of the third when junior infielder Joe Butler hit a sacrifice fly to give them a 3-0 lead going into the fourth inning.
Junior catcher Bryan Chilton earned the first run for the Racers in the bottom of the fifth when he grounded out, scoring freshman infielder Wes Chad. Sophomore infielder Jordan Holly singled to right scoring another for the Racers bringing the score to 3-2 Illinois State.
Senior infielder Derek Parola added another run for the Redbirds in the top of the seventh when he singled to left field.
The Racer’s senior outfielder Tyler Duke brought the lead back to one in the bottom of the eighth; however, Murray State couldn’t add any more runs and fell to Illinois State 4-3.
Game 2;
After losing the series opener in a game that went down to the wire, the second game ended with the Racers coming out on top 5-4.
Murray State scored the first run in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI single by sophomore catcher Jonah Brannon.
The Redbirds answered quickly with three runs of their own in the top of the third when junior outfielder Jordan Libman hit a three-run home run to gain a 3-1 lead.
Helping the Racers mount a comeback was sophomore outfielder Jake Slunder, who added two runs for the Racers. One in the bottom of the sixth and then reaching on a error by the Redbirds third baseman to score another in the bottom of the eighth.
Illinois State took the lead in the top of the ninth thanks to a home run from junior outfielder John Rave to bring the score to 4-3.
Junior outfielder Brock Anderson came up clutch for the Racers when he hit a walkoff two-run double to split the series at 1-1 with a 5-4 victory.
Game 3;
Illinois State took the series finale with an offensive explosion in the top of the ninth to power them to a 9-5 win.
The Redbirds gained the lead in the first when Libman advanced to second on a passed ball and another runner scored. Junior infielder Joe Aeilts followed that later in the inning by hitting a sacrifice fly scoring Libman.
Parola added another run in the top of the fourth for Illinois State when he grounded out to second, to make the lead 3-0.
The Racers began chipping away at the lead in fifth when they scored two runs thanks to a passed ball scoring one and a sacrifice fly from Holly, cutting the lead to just one.
Murray State took the lead in the bottom of the eighth when junior outfielder Ryan Perkins singled to right scoring Holly, tying the game at 3-3. Anderson hit a single up the middle to score two more and take a 5-3 lead into the ninth inning
The Redbirds offense came alive in the top of the ninth, scoring six runs that went unanswered by the Racers.
Murray State will return for a home game against Southern Illinois at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5 at Reagan Field.
