Murray State baseball score today, UCLA: College World Series bracket

OMAHA, NE. — Murray State baseball fell to UCLA 6-4 on Saturday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in its Men’s College World Series debut. MSU will play the loser of Arkansas-LSU at 2 p.m. ET Monday in a win-or-go-home game.

Murray State’s offense was slow to start. The Racers (44-16) didn’t log a base hit until the fifth inning. UCLA (48-16) scored one run in the first and another in the second. But the Bruins exploded in the fourth, scoring four times in four at-bats.

Murray State responded with a run in the fifth, then another in the sixth, slowly chipping away at UCLA’s lead. MSU got within two runs in the top of the eighth but was ultimately unable to close the gap.

Racers starting pitcher Nic Schutte is a Louisville native. He played quarterback at Male High School before committing to Western Kentucky baseball and playing a short stint at Motlow State Community College. He pitched five innings for the Racers on Saturday, walking four and striking out three. He allowed eight hits and six runs.

Murray State’s fourth NCAA Tournament has been a historic one. MSU is one of two Group of Five schools (along with Coastal Carolina) to reach Omaha, a city dominated by the SEC and ACC as of late. Sixty-nine of the 120 MCWS spots over the last 15 years have gone to those conferences.

Meanwhile, Murray State makes 20 MCWS appearances for the Missouri Valley Conference. It’s the league’s first since Missouri State in 2003. The Racers are also the fourth No. 4 regional seed to make it this far since 1999.

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Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.