THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Murray State 7, Illinois State 6
MURRAY STATE 7, ILLINOIS STATE 6
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State (9-4) baseball defeated Illinois State 7-6 in 16 innings on Thursday evening at Johnny Reagan Field in Murray, Kentucky. The marathon affair was the second-longest at MSU since 1988 while the game was just off of the OVC record of 17 innings. Wes Schad would draw a walk to bring home Drew Vogel for the winning run.
Illinois State jumped out to an early lead scoring three runs in the second inning and adding another run in the third. The Racers would bounce back with Brennan McCullough and Seth Gardner scoring runs in the fourth inning. In the fifth, Jake Slunder would slug his fourth triple of the year to the right-center gap before freshman Carson Garner smacked his first career home run over the left-field wall to tie the game.
The Redbirds again gained the lead with a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings to go ahead 6-4. Murray State again would fight back with a run in the bottom of the eighth. Gardner walked before Alex Crump would double to bring runners to second and third for a Vogel sacrifice fly to center field.
The Racers trailed into the bottom of the ninth before a one-out Garner walk and a double down the right-field line from Bryson Bloomer set MSU in scoring position. Down to their final out, Garner read a wild pitch perfectly from the Redbirds pitcher to plate the tying run.
Racer and Redbird pitching would then throw zeroes on the scoreboard for seven more innings before the Murray State side were able to draw a bases-loaded walk for the winner.
Jordyn Naranjo picked up the win for the Racers after throwing a scoreless 16th. Alec Whaley was phenomenal for the MSU staff throwing five scoreless in extra innings.
The 16-inning marathon is the second-longest since 1988 for MSU. Murray State moves to 9-0 at Johnny Reagan Field in 2022