By Doug Kyle
With apologies to Charles, Mississippi State's baseball week was something out of a Dickens novel. A 2-0 trip to Keesler Federal Field in Biloxi, MS led into an agonizing 0-3 weekend back home on campus in Starkville, MS, at Dudy Noble Field. Victories over Old Dominion (9-4) and Nicholls (2-1) reflected the sort of fortunes one seeks across Highway 90 at Beau Rivage Casino. Losses to Texas (7-8, 3-5, and 1-4) defined the "almost but not quite" fortunes one usually gets.
Playing before a total crowd of more than 8400 in two nights, Head Coach Chris Lemonis and players alike termed the Hancock Whitney Classic "Dudy Noble South" and remarked how similar a feel it had to playing a home game, on the road.
In the first game, State took an early 7-1 lead, only to see it halved to 7-4 in an Old Dominion rally. The Bulldogs responded back with two more, a response Lemonis later remarked makes further resurgence by the opponent difficult. The second night, the Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead, and pitching kept Nicholls at bay after the Colonels halved that lead as well.
In the series opener at home, State had taken a 4-2 lead over Texas when a sinking line drive got by right fielder Aaron Downs and went to the wall for a triple. A wild pitch promptly scored the runner and tightened the score to 4-3. State responded and put another run on the board for a 5-3 lead.
Bulldog starter Pico Kohn's pitch count wasn't extremely high, but he lost some sharpness in the 7th inning, hitting a batter and giving up a single to put two on. Typically-reliable reliever Chase Hungate came on and gave up a pair of singles, each on the second pitch, that tied the score 5-5. Hungate worked his way to a 3-2 count on six pitches when the seventh was hit deep to the outfield, a home run and an 8-5 Texas lead. It was just 11 pitches to three batters, but the damage was done before a replacement could realistically be ready.
State closed the gap to the final 8-7 in the 9th when Ace Reese's double off the left centerfield wall drove in two, but fell inches short of a tying home run.
Shortly after the game ended and Lemonis talked with media, an announcement was made that with threatening severe weather forecast throughout the entire state of Mississippi, Saturday's game had been moved into a Sunday doubleheader, by conference rule as two seven-inning games. The opener came down to a 3-3 tie in the 7th, when the first two batters went after 0-2 pitches, one for a single, the other for a home run to left field that resulted in the final 5-3 score.
In the series finale, Texas held 1-0 and 2-1 leads throughout much of the game, but any chance MSU had of tying or taking a lead late was hampered even more when Texas tacked on a pair of insurance runs for what would be the final 4-1 score.
Going 0-3 in conference, albeit to a team now with 17 straight wins, to start the season is challenge enough to overcome, but the Bulldogs also face the obstacle of playing their next two SEC series at Oklahoma and LSU, wrapped around home midweek games with Jackson State on March 18 and Samford on March 25.
Postgame Sunday, Lemonis and senior outfielder Bryce Chance both offered a similar comment, in that the team is good and played well at times during the series. But both also did not shy away from acknowledgement that their play was not good enough, and not often enough for the good plays that were made. "We had a good plan," Chance said, "And we didn't execute well."
Fellow CBCer Colton Watson was also there and offers this summary:
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