MURRAY, Ky. – The Illinois State baseball program suffered a 6-5 defeat in the series finale with Murray State Sunday afternoon at Johnny Reagan Field. With the loss, the Redbirds fall to 22-17 and 6-9 in Missouri Valley Conference play.
After two scoreless frames, the Redbirds opened scoring the contest as Graduate Payton McHarg walked and a single from Junior Graham Mastros set up a three-run home run from Junior Michael Carrano Jr. to give Illinois State a 3-0 advantage.
In the sixth, Sophomore Eric Machej singled, and Sophomore Louis Bussard doubled to place a pair of runners in scoring position for the Redbirds. Redshirt Sophomore Brayden Bakes was later hit by a pitch to load the bases for Illinois State in the frame.
Moments later, Junior Ryan Bakes drew a walk to score Machej and push the Redbird advantage to 4-0. McHarg added another run to extend the Illinois State lead to 5-0 on a sacrifice fly.
In the home half of the sixth, Murray State struck back as, after a leadoff double, the Racers used an RBI single to plate their first run in the contest and move the score to 5-1. Murray State later loaded the bases with back-to-back walks, with a runner stationed on each base, the Racers tallied consecutive RBI groundouts to cut the Redbird advantage to 5-3. Murray State added an additional run with an infield single to make the score 5-4.
The Racers threatened an inning later after a Redbird error and a base hit placed two runners on to begin the frame. Murray State worked both runners into scoring position, but Freshman Brayden Zilis worked out of the jam with a strikeout to maintain Illinois State's 5-4 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Racers tallied a pair of walks and a single to load the bases. With two outs, Murray State singled up the middle to score two runs and secure the walkoff victory 6-5.
NOTES
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Graduate Camden Karczewski tallied his 16th multi-hit game of the season with two hits.
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Junior Michael Carrano Jr. notched his fourth home run of the campaign with a three-run shot in the third. Carrano Jr. became the ninth Redbird to surpass a double-digit RBI total this season with a total of 11.
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Sophomore Louis Bussard added his fourth multi-hit game of the campaign with two hits. Bussard tallied a double and his first triple as a Redbird in the contest.
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Redshirt Freshman Luke Teschke tallied 5.0 innings pitched and five strikeouts in the game. Teschke has recorded at least five innings tossed and four or more punchouts in his last five starts.
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