By Doug Kyle
If you can keep your head clear and thoughts not muddied by the frustration and near-misses, there’s evidence of Mississippi State making incremental progress this week, run-ruling a Jackson State team 16-3 that they should run-rule, and finding themselves leading all three games on the road against a Top 10 SEC opponent, Oklahoma.
Terming the 2-2 week a split feels like a bit too much spin even for me. But, when it comes to the execution with the game on the line, Head Coach Chris Lemonis, and any players you might ask, will likely say something similar to last week, when Texas swept at Dudy Noble: they have to be better, make more good plays, and make fewer poor plays. It still wasn’t enough, nor was any improvement sufficient for anyone's satisfaction.
To their credit, State won the Friday opener, behind brilliant pitching, first by team ace Pico Kohn, then by Stone Simmons and Luke Dotson. Half the outs in the game were strikeouts (27) in the 2-1 MSU win.
In Saturday’s potentially pivotal game, the start could not have been any more gut-wrenching. In the first two innings, an error was charged to each infielder, to the point where a D1 reporter joked about dubiously fielding for the “cycle,” although it should be noted he had enough details to be funny, he just didn’t have enough details to get the final 13-11 score correct, an error of his own someone could write about.
And, similar to the Texas series, when State had a 5-3 lead or was tied 3-3 and saw the other team push across winning scores late, the Bulldogs came back from being down 5-0 after an inning and 7-0 after two to actually take an 11-10 lead. But, that was all they could produce, and Oklahoma first tied the game 11-11, then got the winning runs on a home run in the bottom of the 8th, leaving the Bulldogs one last turn at bat.
The game was similar on Sunday, when a series win over that Top 10 SEC opponent was still within reach, as it had been 22 hours earlier. Oklahoma pushed across a pair of early runs off Karson Ligon with just one hit, but MSU came back and again took a one-run lead, 3-2. And like the day before, Oklahoma tied the score, then regained the lead with three runs in the 6th and added a painful final one in the 7-3 loss, on a squeeze bunt from the OU closer, forced into hitting when injury removed the DH from the game earlier.
There are things from the series to appreciate and recognize, and there are things to identify and gear up for what will surely be seen in game film by future opponents.
Sawyer Reeves, Bryce Chance, Noah Sullivan, Reed Stallman, Gatlin Sanders, Nolan Stevens, and Ace Reese all had multiple-hit games, Reese with a multi-homer game as well, that overcame the early deficits and put the Bulldogs right back in the games.
Did I omit someone? Oh yeah, Hunter Hines, I know you’ve heard of him. He tied Bruce Castoria, moved closer to Rafael Palmeiro in career home runs, and went 6-13 on the weekend, perhaps a hint his typical slow start might be drawing to a close.
Another thing that hurt tremendously was the loss of Ross Highfill, who was hit in the face area by a pitch in Friday’s game. Despite his recent midweek home run, Joe Powell hasn’t had as much playing time, or success, as last year when he came back to baseball and split time with Johnny Long, Powell now struggling with a batting average below .200.
Joe did throw out a runner attempting to steal, but it was a successful strategy of 14 series stolen bases by an already-running Oklahoma that helped it to likely pilfer several extra runs on Saturday and Sunday.
Close and winnable games like those Saturday and Sunday can sometimes be the most frustrating to accept and easiest to second guess. Don’t make five errors Saturday, and you’re likely headed into Sunday with the series already won. But, that’s hindsight, which anyone with an iPhone and X account can profoundly profess.
What there isn’t a question about, in my view, is that just like last weekend, they’re close. Frustratingly close.
And, pardon the pun, but sooner or later, this team has the ability, talent, and toughness to break through to the conference success they want 100 times as much as any of us do.
If people are still measuring their satisfaction with this team, and staff, by whether they get to spend June at Dudy Noble Field, I don’t know what to tell you. Except that if you care about this team, then care about this team, all of them. Because I feel confident that’s the way they see it, good or bad, win or lose.
I made a somewhat exaggerated prediction a few months back about the depth and level of the SEC, that some team might play all 10 of its SEC series against ranked opponents. That’s not likely for the season with MSU’s schedule, but so far, it is 2-0 and about to be 3-0, even after a certain Longhorn team took their series this weekend over the LSU Tigers, who will be good and mad come Thursday night in Baton Rouge.
In the meantime, Tuesday’s game against Samford isn’t a gimme, either, and they need your support. Samford typically gets up for State, and who knows, there may be another Colton Ledbetter in the lineup waiting for his chance against an SEC opponent at home.
*****
Kommentarer