Millersville

A former Millersville broadcaster once called Chris Murphy the perfect Division II baseball player. It is hard to argue against that statement. After three electrifying seasons in Black and Gold, Murphy staked a claim as the greatest PSAC pitcher ever.  

After all, no other pitcher in the league’s long and storied history has been named the PSAC East Pitcher of the Year three times. In 2013 and 2015 he was recognized as the Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Year by all three award organizations—Daktronics, American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Murphy became the first three-time All-Atlantic Region selection in program history and the first Marauder recognized at the All-America level three times.  

Murphy’s 33-4 career record over 41 career starts seems impossible. Despite pitching for just three seasons, he still broke the school record for wins by eight and finished just three wins shy of the PSAC record. He won five more games than any other three-year pitcher in PSAC history. His .892 winning percentage ranks first at Millersville and second-best in PSAC history, despite recording a whopping 24 more decisions than the record holder. His 2.07 career ERA was the best-ever by a Marauder starting pitcher.  

In the third start of his Millersville’s career, Murphy tossed the third no-hitter in Millersville history, striking out 13. Just three starts later, Murphy overwhelmed Clarion, using just 64 pitches (52 strikes) for the 18th perfect game in Division II history and the first-ever at Millersville. That game started a stretch of 25 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings for Murphy. One year later, he tossed 24 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings and remains the only PSAC pitcher with two such streaks of more than 20 innings. In his first season, he became the first Marauder named All-America First Team.  

Murphy repeated all the PSAC and Atlantic Region awards during a junior season in which he won the national pitcher of the week award three times and region pitcher of the week award five times. In one stretch between 2014 and 2015, Murphy won 15 consecutive decisions—the second-longest streak in PSAC history. His senior year, Murphy went 12-0 in 13 starts for most wins without a loss in PSAC history. He posted identical 1.94 ERAs in 2014 and 2015. As a senior, he was a finalist for the Brett Tomko Award (Division II’s best pitcher) and a semifinalist for the Josh Willingham Award presented to the Division II MVP.  

The Houston Astros selected Murphy in the 24th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, and after reaching high-A after two seasons of affiliated baseball, Murphy continued his professional career with Trois-Rivieres in the Can-Am League.