Murray State clinches first MCWS appearance, becomes fourth No. 4 seed to make it to Omaha

NCAA ^ | 6/9/25 | Torin Smith

[Redmen4ever]

For the first time in program history, the Murray State Racers have advanced to the Men’s College World Series, beating Duke in three games in the Durham Super Regional. It is only the fourth time in history that a No. 4 seed has advanced to the MCWS.

[Redmen4ever]

Murray State started by beating Old Miss in the regionals (a double-loss elimination tournament). Ole Miss rose back from the losers' bracket to face Murray State again. Ole Miss beat Murray State 19 to 8 to force the "if necessary" game. Murray State then edged Old Miss in the "if necessary" game 12 to 11, to advance to the super-regionals.

The super-regional (a best of three tournament) pitted Murray State against Duke. Duke won the first game, but Murray State came back to win the next two.

Now Murray State, from the Missouri Valley Conference, advances to the D1 College World Series in Omaha. There, it will join six power conference teams (Arizona, Arkansas, LSU, Louisville, Oregon and UCLA) and Coastal Carolina of the Sun Belt Conference.

I have a couple buddies rooting for Arkansas and LSU, but, it's good to see a couple "mid majors" make it to Omaha.

[griswold3]

It was a great series!

[Drago]

Minor typo in your NCAA link....here is the working one:

https://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/article/2025-06-09/murray-state-clinches-first-mcws-appearance-becomes-fourth-no-4-seed-make-it-omaha

FResno State Bulldog baseball was a #4 seed in 2008 and won it all! “Underdogs to Wonderdogs”!

https://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/article/2025-06-06/regional-no-4-seeds-made-mens-college-world-series

https://youtu.be/Kbg28WK4K_Y?si=XlQmnazdo2TBoPr2

[Drago]

Am rooting for the Oregon State Beavers this time around.

https://osubeavers.com/sports/baseball

[Drago]

(But wouldn’t mind Murray State being the “Cinderella” team at the CWS)

[Redmen4ever]

thanks for the correction, Drago. You’re the best.

[wrcase]

Do they still use metal bats? Never could get used to that.

[Redmen4ever]

everybody except MLB uses metal bats nowadays

https://archivedinnings.com/2021/05/01/the-rise-of-the-aluminum-baseball-bat/

[Mean Daddy]

The CWS and Omaha fans always embrace the underdogs. I’ll have to go downtown and get my son a hat.

[Verginius Rufus]

Dramatic last couple of innings last night. In the 8th inning Murray State went up 5-3 and had the bases loaded with no outs, but was unable to score any more runs.

In the bottom of the 9th Duke was down by one run and had a runner at first. What looked like a routine double play to end the game didn't happen because the runner sliding into second took out the second baseman so he couldn't throw to first. Initially it was called interference so the runner at first was out and the Murray State players ran on to the field thinking they had won. But then there was a review of the play and the verdict was "no interference" so there were only two outs and the runner was on first. (He was replaced by a pinch runner.) But then the next batter grounded out and Murray State won.

Maybe it was delayed karma for the Duke students who were nearly sent to prison for a rape that never happened.

[dfwgator]

That was most definitely interference on that ground ball, the Duke player’s feet were at least two feet outside of the base path.

[dfwgator]

Umpires wimped out in front of the home crowd. That was interference all day long.

[Verginius Rufus]

You may be right--it certainly looked like interference. But the commentators seemed to agree with the overturning of the original call on the field. But Murray won so all's well that ends well.

Murray State's tuition is about $10K a year vs. Duke's of $66K if not more. So I like the idea of a school where ordinary kids go beating a rich kids' school.

Murray State's team used to be called the Thoroughbreds, but is now the Racers. Easier to spell. But it opens their fans up to being called Racists.

[GingisK]

Seeing Murray State University in the news is always a surprise. I graduated in 1972 from MSU. I think this is the second bit of news; but, I can't remember the first.

I started out majoring in Physics & Math, ending up as their very first CS graduate. My professors were wonderful people, and MSU was a magic place to be at the time. The Physic's Department's IBM 1130 was MINE. They even offered it to me in 1980 or so.