Mississippi State Review/Preview: Second Down, Five To Go

A pinch-hit home run by catcher Ross Highfill was the pivotal hit in a series-clinching rubber game in Tuscaloosa over a ranked Crimson Tide team (Mississippi State athletics photo)

By Doug Kyle

With all due respect to Alabama, you don't get ranked in virtually every college baseball poll without earning it and having a very good team. And with all due respect to Mississippi State, you don't dominate a program like that for a decade without having a little pride and tradition yourself.

The Bulldogs just won their ninth straight series over the Crimson Tide, dating back to 2015, having not lost one on the road even further back, 2010, and proved that despite a slow-starting season, they always play with confidence when facing the school just 90 miles east on Highway 82.

Sure, the conference record is still 5-10; yes, there's yet a long way to go to be in the conversation for postseason beyond the Hoover guarantee. But, when you come from 0-3 and 1-8, you take it one game at a time, one series at a time. So, let's enjoy satisfaction in having won two series in a row, but let's also keep in mind this is the halftime of the SEC campaign, and a 5-10 mark in that second half won't cut the mustard.

It may not be realistic to expect to win all five remaining series, but don't tell anyone suiting up in maroon and white that. The talent, the opportunities that were so tantalizingly close and so agonizingly elusive, they're coming through. They're baby steps, but they are steps.

That was never more evident than in the Sunday game at Tuscaloosa. State had their hitting clothes on Friday night and claimed what appears to be their first-ever SEC road run-rule (say that fast three times) win, 13-3 in eight innings. As it did all weekend, State made the most out of the least pitching, Pico Kohn and Stone Simmons pairing for four innings each.

Things got off to a fast start in the 1st inning, with Hunter Hines moving past Will Clark with his 62nd career home run for a 3-0 lead. Then State did what Head Coach Chris Lemonis emphasizes so often, expand the lead, pulling away from a 4-3 threat with seven runs in the 5th inning and one each in the 7th and 8th.

When they couldn't do that again on Saturday, after a Gehrig Frei leadoff home run was an early 1-0 lead, they lost 4-1, leaving eight runners on base and hitting into two double plays at the worst possible times. They matched Alabama's nine hits, so the opportunities were there, like ducks on a pond. The offense fell short, though, not the pitching, with Evan Siary and Ben Davis logging four innings each like Kohn and Simmons the day before.

Then, the scenario repeated Sunday, Sawyer Reeves hitting his second home run of the year in the 1st for a 2-0 lead. And, aggravatingly, Alabama battled back to tie the game 2-2 on a pair of unearned runs. It looked like another possible letdown might be looming when Ross Highfill came off the bench with two out in the 7th inning and pinch hit the go-ahead, and eventual winning, run with a homer to left field.

For good measure and a little insurance, Ace Reese did his best 1988 Kirk Gibson imitation with one out in the 8th inning and reached down to poke one of his own out to right field. That made it 4-2 Bulldogs, and with the dominating relief pitching of Chase Hungate and Nate Williams following Karson Ligon's second straight starting gem, another conference series win was in the books. Pardon the football reference, but it's second down, five to go.

And, let's not forget the road win that began the week's visit to Alabama, pulling away from a similar 2-2 tie with UAB in Birmingham for an 8-3 midweek win, the kind that always seems to matter the most not when you win them, but when you lose them. And, with the RPI of 11 Alabama has earned from warrennolan.com, the Bulldogs at RPI 37 (only Florida has fewer conference wins, 4, and a higher RPI, 31) can also lay claim to some of that now, especially the boost of it being road wins.

And speaking of midweeks, Tuesday night's guest is Southern U., they of the 284 RPI, so despite the ranking dent even a win brings, it's even worse to overlook and play flat against a school that comes in motivated, and hopefully not taken for granted.

Then, in comes aforementioned Florida, which now looks a lot more formidable after sweeping SEC-winless Missouri. It's Easter Weekend, so it's understandable that fans have special plans that may not include the ballpark. If you can make it, the Bulldogs need their fans at this juncture, and with their recent play, they've earned it.

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