The Murray State Racers dropped a 19-8 defeat Sunday night to the Ole Miss Rebels Sunday night at the 2025 NCAA Tournament Oxford Regional at Swayze Field in Mississippi.
It was MSU's first postseason loss after winning six in a row between winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and wins over Ole Miss and Georgia Tech here in Oxford.
The Racers (41-14) come back Monday for a winner-take-all game at 5 p.m. CT with the Rebels with the winner advancing to the NCAA Super Regional.
MSU got on the board first when Luke Mistone singled to score Dustin Mercer. The Racers scored two more in the second on Jonathan Hogart's 19
th home run of the season for a 3-2 lead.
Ole Miss hit the Racers for eight runs in the third inning and five more in the fourth for a 15-4 lead.
Game Notes
- The Racers saw their six-game win streak in postseason play and seven overall end tonight.
- Up until the third inning, the Racers had enjoyed being in the lead most of their stay in Oxford, only trailing in 1.5 innings of 21 innings played.
- When Hogart homered for the 19th time in the second inning, the Racers had a 2-out batting average of .379 in 29 at-bats with 11 hits in Oxford.
- Through three games of the Oxford Regional, Dustin Mercer is hitting .750 on 9-of-12 and seven of his hits are doubles and with five walks and one HBP, his on base percentage is ,812.
- On Monday, the Racers will be trying to make it three in a row for the MVC to get one of their teams to the NCAA Super-Regional following Indiana State (2023) and Evansville in (2024).
- MVC teams are a combined 10-5 in NCAA Regionals during the 2023, 2024, and 2025 tournaments.
- The Racers are 4-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
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