Third Baseman Logan Kohler (left) and Pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (right)
The tough part about facing Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (sane-juh) is not that he can throw with either arm, it's that he is rarely deterred and never stops coming at you.
That was never more true than Saturday afternoon, when the switch pitcher battled Alabama inning after inning, throwing 110 pitches in seven complete innings. The only score the Curacao native gave up was when he switched from his predominant right-handed side and threw lefty, to a left-handed batter, at that, giving up a home run. The rest of his line went something like this: 7 hits, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts, and 3 hit batsmen. Cijntje's record is now 7-1.
There was one thing that took Cijntje out of the game, momentarily. He had to go find another contact lens, and even when he began to tire in the seventh inning, he told Pitching Coach Justin Parker that he wasn't coming out.
And, to his delight, he didn't, finishing the inning and coming off the field to the congratulations of his teammates and cheers of the crowd of 14,273, a new #10 largest attendance in the history of Dudy Noble Field, giving it now 24 of the largest 25 campus totals in NCAA history. (LSU's 13,068 is the other).
Tyler Davis pitched the last two innings, yielding only a leadoff double in the ninth inning.
Hitting wise, the move of Bryce Chance to leadoff is now paying off, as he went 2-5. Logan Kohler continues his resurgence at the plate, going 3-4, including a double in the 3rd inning and a home run in the 8th. David Mershon also had two hits, including his fourth home run.
Mississippi State improves its SEC record to 14-9, 32-15 overall. Alabama drops to 9-14, 28-18 overall. The teams play the final game of the SEC series Sunday at 1:00 pm CDT.
Here are post-game comments from Head Coach Chris Lemonis: