{"id":8144,"date":"2022-07-20T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=8144"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:21:17","slug":"gray-readies-for-fresno-state-bulldogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/gray-readies-for-fresno-state-bulldogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray readies for Fresno State Bulldogs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

For years, the Madera baseball community knew greatness was coming from a kid simply known as, \u201cMurf.\u201d<\/p>

No one really calls him by his given name. In fact, he doesn\u2019t respond to it, unless it\u2019s being yelled to him by his mother.<\/p>

When Tristan \u201cMurf\u201d Gray graduated from Madera South High School, he became part of history by leading the Stallions to its first-ever Central Section baseball championship, and did it with his friends by his side.<\/p>

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s been great,\u201d Gray said. \u201cI had a lot of fun and was able to play with my friends. We completed a goal that we wanted since our freshman year. We got our rings.\u201d<\/p>

Gray had been getting talked to about transferring to this school or that school, but he always wanted to play with his friends.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve been getting talked to about transferring since my eighth grade year to play with strong teams,\u201d he said. \u201cI think this team is pretty strong because it\u2019s all guys I knew and trusted. It means the world to win with my guys. We\u2019ve been winning championships since I was 8 with the Colts. To do this as seniors in high school is amazing.\u201d<\/p>

Gray signed his National Letter of Intent and will play baseball next year right down the road for the Fresno State Bulldogs.<\/p>

\u201cThe pressure off is a little bit more now,\u201d he said during an interview in June. \u201cThe season is over and I can focus on going to Fresno State, but I\u2019m a little nervous.\u201d<\/p>

Gray led the Stallions to the Div. IV title. He pitched four innings in the game to get the win in the championship game. He tossed the first three innings, came out for an inning and finished out the fourth to secure a 5-3 victory.<\/p>

\u201cThat Junior year playoff game goes out the window. Now, we feel amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>

The Stallions\u2019 season ended the next week against eventual NorCal Champions, Bradshaw Christian-Sacramento.<\/p>

\u201cThat was icing to play the next week,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were focused on Valley. Once we did that, I felt like we were drained and tired from winning valley. We went into the next game a little drained. It was a real big drop-off. We were a little off track in the Valley game. I felt like we competed with Bradshaw. We had opportunities that we missed. That Valley game was high energy and we dropped off after that.\u201d<\/p>

Now, Gray will shift his focus to Fresno State where he plans to major in kinesiology after recording a 3.45 grade point average at Madera South.<\/p>

\u201cIf that does work out the way I want, I may go into communications. I want to do physical therapy,\u201d he said.<\/p>

Gray has had experience with kinesiology with the many ailments he had to go through, beginning with a knee injury his freshman season.<\/p>

This season, he had a number of ailments, including his prized right arm.<\/p>

\u201cMy hamstring was beat up, my arm and wrist was hurt,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wrist and hamstring came back strong. The arm fell off a little bit. I hurt the back of my arm. I have to get it checked out to see how long I can sit out before I throw again.\u201d<\/p>

The Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was held this week and one of Gray\u2019s dreams is to hear his name get announced, but he wants to play college baseball, first.<\/p>

\u201cAfter that, I want to get drafted,\u201d he said.<\/p>

There aren\u2019t many things for Gray to work on, but he says he needs to get bigger and faster while gaining more speed.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s something I can definitely work on,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>

Gray is a two-time All-Madera Tribune Baseball Most Valuable Player, a two-time All-County\/Metro Athletic Conference first-team selection and was also a recipient of The Madera Tribune\u2019s Sportsmanship Award.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m pretty proud of my reputation,\u201d he said. \u201cMy parents pushed me so hard to build a good character for myself to be that one person they hear about and know. I want to continue to be good, but I want to be great one day.\u201d<\/p>

For Gray, the build-up has come and the results have shown. Now, he hopes to continue on his baseball legacy at Fresno State.<\/p>

\u201cIt was an amazing four years,\u201d he said. \u201cSchool was tough, at first. It finished off pretty strong. Baseball was really fun.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, the Madera baseball community knew greatness was coming from a kid simply known as, \u201cMurf.\u201d No one really calls him by his given name. In fact, he doesn\u2019t respond to it, unless it\u2019s being yelled to him by his mother. When Tristan \u201cMurf\u201d Gray graduated from Madera South High School, he became part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":35014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-8144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}