HOUSTON, Tex. - Former Arizona Western Baseball player Jayden Murray made his MLB debut on Thursday, September 4th, against the New York Yankees. Murray took the mound in the top of the eighth inning with the Astros trailing by four runs, with two outs and a runner on base. 

"First batter he faces is arguably the best player in baseball," Arizona Western Assistant Baseball coach Zeke Mitchem said. "Welcome to the show as they say." 

That player was Aaron Judge and Murray got the perennial All-Star on a line out to left to end the inning.

"It was a cool moment," Jayden Murray said. "Just went out there, tried to come out with my best stuff. That's what the plan was, and it worked out."

Murray returned to the hill in the ninth inning and recorded his first strikeout with members of his family in attendance.

"It was a little tough, I didn't know if it was going to happen," Murray said. "They had to hurry to get to Houston and we didn't know if they'd be able to get tickets. They made it, got in and it was a surreal moment for sure."

Murray completed his debut throwing 1.1 innings with the strikeout and didn't allow any runners to get on base.

"He deserves it because he earned it," Former Arizona Western Baseball Head Coach Drew Keehn said. "It's just great, so great, so happy for him. Just a great kid, great teammate, great family. His family was awesome, just first-class people."

On Saturday, September 6th, Murray was called upon again and again delivered a scoreless inning in relief. That led to the former Matador making his first ever start against the Atlanta Braves on September 12th. Murray went three innings, struck out one batter, surrendered one hit and again, did not allow a run as the Astros won 11-0 to keep pace with Seattle in the AL West standings. 

"He's showing the Astros what he can do," Mitchem said. "He can do whatever you want him to do; he's kind of a Swiss army knife type of pitcher. I mean he did that for us too."

This week, Murray was used on Monday and Tuesday in the Astros series against Texas and still hasn't allowed a run. In total Murray has appeared in five games, made on start, tossed a total of 6.2 innings, allowed just three base hits while striking out three batters. 

"I'm excited for him," Keehn said. "Excited for any player that I've coached that has a chance to get to the big leagues, It's awesome."

Murray is just the sixth player from Arizona Western to make his way to MLB and only the second Matador pitcher. 

"It's a big deal, really big deal," Mitchem said. "The only other one is Sergio Romo and he won a World Series."

What's more impressive than Jayden Murray's MLB start is how he got here in the first place.

"Just a great story," Coach Drew Keehn said. "He came to us as a 6'1" freshman who weighed about 145 pounds and threw 82-84 mph. He had like a 16.00 ERA as a freshman in conference. In our end of season exit meeting I told him he'd have to prove that he can pitch here. We took his scholarship away, he still said he wanted to come back anyway."

"Coach Keehn helped me a lot," Murray said. "As far as that scholarship situation goes, it lit a fire in me. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. I wanted to prove I belonged, so I went out and worked hard. Did the things he told me to work on."

Murray put in the work and came back as one of the Matadors best players.

"He's a great story," Coach Mitchem said. "I came here in his sophomore year and was told the story that he had his scholarship removed and had to earn it back and he did. He did earn it back."

"Jayden went through a lot of challenges, we forced him to go through some challenges, and he was just a great competitor and a great kid," Coach Keehn said. "He was up for the challenge, and I think that really says a lot about him. He was raised with that attitude, and it's paid off well because he's had to kind of wait for his time."

From Arizona Western Murray wound up at Utah Tech in 2018 & 2019. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 23rd round of the 2019 MLB draft. He was traded to Houston in 2022, reached Triple-A Sugar Land in 2023 before a series of injury setbacks cost him most of last season. Now he's a professional baseball player for the Houston Astros in the middle of a pennant chase.

"The cool part is that he put his time in," Coach Mitchem said. "He didn't take the easy way by any means. From where he started to where he ended up is pretty impressive, it's a big deal in that way too."

"We tell Jayden's story all the time to each other and to recruits," Coach Keehn said. "Jayden Murray is now in the big leagues which he's more than earned but, he was a guy that faced some challenges in our program and that's what we tried to build. How do our players react to adversity? Jayden certainly sets the standard, and he played with some really good players. He hung out and trained with the right teammates."

Murray's accomplishments have made Arizona Western College, the sports department and most notably the baseball program very proud, especially knowing AWC is remembered along his journey. 

"Getting a response from Jayden the first night he pitched meant a lot, he remembered us," Mitchem said. "I hope the Astros make the playoffs so he can pitch in the postseason, how awesome would that be. First year in the bigs and get the play in the postseason."