DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Dustin Mercer had four hits, Dom Decker and Will Verling drove in four runs apiece and Mercer pounded Duke 19-9 on Sunday to force a deciding third game in the Durham Super Regional.
Four players scored three times and two scored twice as the Racers (43-15) scored 10-plus runs for the seventh time in 11 games. Jonathan Hogart, Carson Garner, Dan Tauken and Connor Cunningham had home runs.
The deciding game is Monday at Duke’s Jack Coombs Field, which was built 94 years ago and is holding its first postseason playoff games. Game Two attendance was 2,689, three less than the record crowd that attended the opener.
Duke’s last College World Series appearance was in 1961, and Murray State has never made it there.
Murray State took a 10-3 lead with a five-run fourth inning. The Blue Devils (40-20) got back in the game with five runs in the sixth, but a nine-run seventh broke it open for the Racers.
Decker had a two-run single, Vierling a two-run double and Tauken and Cunningham homered in the seventh.
AJ Gracia and Ben Miller had back-to-back solo home runs in the first for Duke and Wallace Clark added another in the third. Ben Rounds had a two-run double in the sixth and Macon Winslow capped the rally with a two-run homer. Rounds added a solo shot in the eighth.
Isaac Silva (8-2) went 5 1/3 innings, giving up six runs for Murray State and Graham Kelham gave up a hit and a run over the final three innings for his seventh save.
Kyle Johnson (4-4) took the loss after giving up six runs in the first three innings.