5 things to know about Murray State

It had been 22 years since Murray State’s baseball team was in the NCAA tournament.

The Racers are sticking around for more than a weekend.

Duke’s opponent this weekend in a best-of-3 super regional will be the champions from the Missouri Valley Conference. Murray State tied for the regular-season title and swept its way through the conference tournament this season.

And then the Racers went down to Oxford, Miss., to win a regional for the first time in program history — its 86th season. They beat the host team twice, in the first and last games of the regional, hanging on to a 12-11 win against Mississippi on Monday night.

Here are five things to know about the Racers before the super regional starts on Saturday:

This should be obvious but in case it isn’t: Winning more than 40 games (42, in the Racers’ case) is hard to do, no matter the competition level.

Murray State hasn’t lost back-to-back games since being swept in a doubleheader at Illinois State at the end of March. That’s also tied for the longest losing streak of the season, two; the Racers have had four streaks of at least seven wins this season.

It’s no stretch to call this a dream season for the program. Along with being the first super regional appearance, 42 wins is a program record.

The Racers were the 10th No. 4 seed to start the NCAA tournament with two wins since 1999, which is when the tournament’s current format was implemented.

It’s the basic way in which Murray State stands out on paper.

The Racers and don’t rely on any particular strength to do so. They’re not mashers; 71 home runs is tied for 84th in the country. They’re not rampant on the base paths; 47 steals is tied for 226th. They’re almost allergic to sacrifice bunts; seven of them means only 11 teams (out of 300) have fewer this season.

Quite simply, Murray State hits the ball hard, frequently, to places where there aren’t fielders.

The Racers’ team average is .306, which is 30th in the country. Slugging percentage (.504, 32nd) and on-base percentage (.421, 18th) are both top-35 nationally.

It adds up to 493 runs scored in 56 games (8.8 per game). And here’s the fun comparison: Duke has scored 496 runs this season, albeit with three more games played (8.4 per game).

Murray State’s wins in the regional were by margins of one, two and three runs.

Maybe some of that was luck — but the Racers have had luck on their side for most of four months.

Murray State is 21-7 in games decided by three runs or less this season.

That includes splitting a couple of regular-season games against SEC teams. Murray State’s first loss came after it put up a six-run seventh inning at Mississippi on March 5, but lost 8-7 in the 10th inning.

The win over an SEC team in the regular season was a 5-4 win at Kentucky on March 18.

It’s a weird division of record; Murray State is 21-7 in games decided by more than three runs.

Injuries are a part of college baseball just like any other sport. Duke has its own to deal with, given Ben Miller’s cloudy status after he was hit by a pitch last weekend and missed the regional-clinching win.

Murray State has made things work without missing much of a beat, though.

Eight position players for the Racers have started at least 53 of 56 games this season; four of them having started all 56. That quartet is first baseman Luke Mistrone, centerfielder Jonathan Hogart, third baseman Carson Garner and outfielder Dan Tauken.

Outfielder Dustin Mercer has missed one game in the last two seasons. He was named the most outstanding player of the Oxford regional after he had four doubles in the first win over Mississippi and finished the weekend with 10 hits and six RBI.

This is the seventh season for Dan Skirka as coach of Murray State and there has been a gradual build to making an NCAA tournament.

The Racers’ only losing season under Skirka was his first, going 24-30 in 2019. Last year’s 37 wins were, at the time, the second-most in program history — though the season ended with a couple of lopsided losses in the conference tournament.

Skirka taking over at Murray State marks the second time he’s coached at the Murray, Ky., school; he was an assistant from 2009-14.