Easton Murrell, a native of Prosper (TX), transferred to Texas Tech after spending his freshman season in 2018 at Arkansas, where the Razorbacks advanced to the best-of-three national title series before dropping to Oregon State.
However, he did not make that trip to Omaha last year as he decided to travel to California for summer ball before the postseason.
Murrell is one of two Arky transfers on this year’s Red Raider squad alongside pitcher Bryce Bonnin, who’s had more of an impact on things than Murrell. But, things changed in an elimination game against his former team.
“Yeah, we've played two years with the same leadoff hitter. Gabe Holt has been very dynamic for us. It's not really up for debate if he's healthy who's hitting leadoff,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “Really wanted to give our lineup the same look and wanted to get a left-handed bat in there, and you're really looking at there's some guys that have hit leadoff on our team, Dylan Neuse, Max Marusak, Dru Baker, and I'm talking about in their career, and Easton Murrell is the other one. Really just felt like the left-handed bat was the right thing to stick in there. And then the advantage he has by he's seen everybody out of their bullpen, the older guys. He's seen them a number of times.
... But really we've played -- let's see, we played opening day here and then our third game of the super regional, those are the two games we've played without Gabe Holt. So we're going through some changes, and we've got to try to be as competitive as we can be one through nine, and just felt like Easton is a guy that's handled that.”
Murrell stepped in and crushed his first home run of the year to knot things up at three against Arkansas in the fifth. It was only his second RBI of the year.
His one swing for the Red Raiders produced more than he did in seven appearances as a Razorback.
“Well, what's funny is I was talking to Matt (Gardner) and we were talking about the next inning, and really -- no. I mean, no, it didn't surprise me at all. He's put together really good at-bats over the last month, maybe even the last six weeks. He hit some balls in Oklahoma City just like that, that went for outs. The ballpark was playing a little bit bigger. So I mean, I'm just really proud of him and thankful we've got him.”
While at Arkansas, Murrell took eight at-bats with one hit and was responsible for four runs. He now sits at 37 at-bats with the Red Raiders and has connected on nine hits.
Before his college career, though, Murrell was a star shortstop for a state championship-winning program at Prosper. He also showed flashes on the football field.
Murrell’s performance in the state title run propelled him to receive offers in baseball from the likes of Texas and Oklahoma.
And you don’t have to look far to see where his baseball talent comes from. Murrell’s father, Rod Murrell, according to the USA Today, played high school ball at Skyline and was drafted in the ninth round of the 1986 MLB Draft.
Back to his outing, Easton’s recent performance will be one that the Red Raiders will rely on if they hope to continue their journey in Omaha. They’ll need players to rise to the occasion.
One thing that showed was the ability of this coaching staff to turn a player from a bench guy, with little-to-no contribution, to one that provides depth and the ability to bring you back in a game that a few weeks ago you didn’t expect to see him in – especially at the leadoff spot.
