Murray State defeats Duke to reach first College World Series in program history

Murray State kept its Cinderella run alive Monday with a win against Duke to advance to its first College World Series appearance in program history. The Racers pulled ahead late in the decisive Game 3 of Super Regionals for the 5-4 victory.

The Blue Devils held a 3-2 lead before Murray State tied things up after a solo shot from leadoff hitter Jonathan Hogart in the seventh inning. It followed that up with another pair of runs in the eighth inning to take its first lead of the evening.

Duke inched closer with a solo homer from Macon Winslow in the bottom of the eighth, but that would be the final run they could muster. What would’ve been a game-ending double play was overturned on review when umpires ruled that Clark interfered with Decker by running into him at the bag. The Racers returned to the field and secured the final out on a ground ball and raced together for the dogpile as they celebrated the historic moment.

Murray State had to win back-to-back games against the Blue Devils to advance after falling in Game 1 on Saturday. It responded to that setback with a dominant 19-9 win in Game 2 to set the stage for the winner-take-all game on Monday.

The Racers started off strong with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning to take command early. But Duke responded with a run in the bottom of the inning but waited another couple innings before scoring its next to tie things up. A solo shot from Jake Berger gave them their first lead of the game, 3-2, which they held all the way until the seventh inning.

That’s when the Murray State bats came alive again to close things out against Duke.  Graham Kellam picked up the win at pitcher as he struck out four batters in 2.2 innings of work.

With the win, the Racers move on to face UCLA in their first game of College World Series play. The first pitch for that contest is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.

As for the Blue Devils, they fall short of making the CWS for what would have been the first time since 1961. Instead, they’ll have to swallow this tough defeat and wait at least one more year before breaking that long drought.