Bahamian collegiate baseball player Bertram “BJ” Murray and the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Owls couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the regular season, upsetting four-time national champions Miami on their home field on Tuesday evening, and Murray was a key contributor.
Murray, a redshirt sophomore, drilled a solo shot in the eighth inning, helping the Owls take down the Miami Hurricanes, 3-0, at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida, on Tuesday. Batting second, Murray finished with that solo shot in four at-bats. He had his best season by far this year, finishing the regular season batting .316 with 14 home runs, 51 RBIs (runs batted in) and 46 runs scored. He hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and started all 53 games for the Owls in 2021. The Bahamian infielder for the Owls finished with an impressive slash line of .316/.428/.601.
Defensively, Murray had 43 putouts, 93 assists and 15 errors for a .901 fielding percentage.
On Tuesday, the Owls got a strong start from lefty Adrien Reese, a RBI hit from Jackson Wenstrom in the third, a squeeze bunt from Jalen DeBose in the seventh, and a huge insurance run courtesy of Murray’s solo shot in the eighth, to come out on top. Murray took a 3-2 pitch and deposited it over the left field wall in the top of the eighth to give the Owls a 3-0 lead which turned out to be the final result. It was just the second time in program history the Owls have shutout Miami, and it was also Miami’s first midweek loss of the 2021 season.
Starting pitcher Reese, Mitchell Hartigan, Sam Drumheller and Dante Visconti combined to shut out Miami on just six hits, and now they will go on to play the fourth-seeded Old Dominion University (ODU) Monarchs (36-14, 22-8 C-USA) as the fifth seed in the upcoming Conference USA (C-USA) Postseason Championship.
Owls’ Head Coach John McCormack said afterwards: “That was a really good college baseball game played by both teams. Our pitchers were superb tonight and the defense made all the plays. Offensively, we were able to get some hits when it counted … nice way to end the regular season and head to the C-USA Tournament.”
The Owls (29-23, 18-14 Conference USA) completed the league schedule with a home series split against No. 19 Southern Miss, winning the first and fourth games of that series. Against Miami, they salvaged the three-game series with the shutout win on the road on Tuesday night.
The 2021 Air Force Reserve C-USA Championship begins with the Owls’ first round matchup against ODU, in Ruston, Louisiana, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26. The double-elimination tournament will take place at the newly-refurbished J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park, in Ruston.
The championship game will be played on Sunday, May 30.
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source https://thenassauguardian.com/murray-ends-regular-season-with-a-home-run/
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