Tonight the 11th-ranked Mississippi State baseball team will hope experience counts.
“We are a veteran club this year, which I think is the reason we are ranked so high,” head coach Ron Polk said. “The expectations are always high when you have a veteran ball club.”
The team lost only one position player and two starting weekend pitchers from its 2005 squad and has been picked by the league’s coaches to finish first in the Southeastern Conference West.
Polk calls it the most experienced team he’s had in quite a while.
“We’ve had some more experienced clubs in years past, but no question this is the most experienced club since I’ve been back,” Polk said, referring to his return to Mississippi State in 2002. “It makes it tough for the new guys to come in because there are so many guys waiting their turn.”
The 2005 Bulldogs ended their campaign in the NCAA Regionals only weeks after charging to a victory in the SEC Tournament, defeating archrival Ole Miss in the championship game. They parlayed that success into a runner-up finish in the Coral Gables, Fla., Regional, coming up just short in the championship game against host Miami.
But with most of the same team intact, the bar has been set much higher this season by both pundits and players.
“I like knowing that the expectation is there,” senior co-captain Brad Jones said. “I like the challenge. I’m looking forward to proving that we should have been placed there.”
Prior to the miracle run in the SEC Tournament, the Bulldogs had lost three of their last four SEC series, including winning only one of three games against Louisiana State in Starkville, and were swept on the road at Ole Miss.
But knowing that they could put together a run and defeat the best clubs in the SEC has given this squad a world of self-reliance going into the upcoming campaign.
“(Last year) boosted everyone’s confidence,” Jones said. “Now we know what we’re capable of and how to push each other. We know what to expect from each other.”
Despite the late season turnaround, Polk said he is not a believer in the validity of momentum.
“I’m not a momentum guy,” he said. “I always tell our guys that baseball is not a team game. It’s you against a pitcher or you against a hitter.”
The Field
The veteran nature of the club leaves little to be determined in the starting line-up. The most notable change has been Thomas Berkery moving from catcher to shortstop, his fourth position in as many years.
“Thomas wanted to do it late last year, but I didn’t want him to,” Polk said. “He’ll bring a lot of athleticism to the position and should be a very good shortstop for us.”
Berkery, voted a co-captain this season by his teammates, led the team last year in both home runs and runs batted in, but said he was much more concerned with the team’s fielding woes than his success at the plate.
“We were struggling, and our defense was lacking,” Berkery said. “I didn’t really make a push for it, but I hinted. I decided I could do it, and I needed to take charge.”
The move solidifies the Bulldogs infield, which will now feature Berkery and Jeffery Rae up the middle, Ed Easley behind the plate, Michael Rutledge at third and co-captain Jones at first base.
The only serious change in cast for the 2006 squad could come in the outfield, though.
“The only new starting position player would be right-fielder Andy Rice, who played last year at Itawamba Community College,” Polk said. “Andy is a fine player. He’s gained 20 pounds since he’s been here, and that happens a lot with freshmen and sophomores but not usually with junior college guys. With him we have veterans Jeff Butts and Joseph Hunter, both seniors who have been in the outfield for four years.”
On the base paths, last season was much more stationary than the Diamond Dawgs have been accustomed to, but with Rae and Hunter back at 100 percent after various injuries last season, the running game should spike the offensive production to a point more comfortable for both Polk and fans.
“The key to winning in the conference is who has the most veterans of quality and who stays away from injuries,” Polk said. “We have 28 position players and 16 are dual position players. That protects the ball club from injury and gives us that much more depth.”
The Pitching
The biggest loss from last season-and the biggest question regarding the success of the team this season-lies with the pitching staff.
“Winning championships always requires not only quality starting pitching but quality pitching depth,” Polk said. “The last few years we have been able to keep most of our pitchers healthy with a good rehab and conditioning program.”
At the close of fall ball, the only position confirmed was Brooks Dunn’s slot at the top of the weekend rotation.
He was voted as the team’s best option by both the coaches and players. Beyond that, there are several options open to the team including Jon Crosby, Jon Lalor and Josh Johnson.
“We lost two SEC-rotation guys, and that’s a big loss. Those kids ate up a lot of innings for us and won us some ball games,” Polk said. “We’ve got those 13 games before the start of SEC play to make decisions on a rotation. We’ll make those decisions in due time, and thankfully we have the luxury of these first few games to do that.”
The SEC
The Bulldogs may be picked atop the Western Division, but it is a long way from locking up any form of title. The league is filled with championship contenders and deep rosters.
“The SEC is tough. When I first started coaching here you’d play a team like Kentucky or Vanderbilt, and you’d feel like you had to sweep them because you were that much better. But there’s no gimmee’s any more,” Polk said.
Some of the recent boom in SEC talent level comes from the current state of the league’s scholarship system, which allows states with lottery-sponsored scholarships to circumvent the scholarship limits placed by the NCAA and fully fund multiple in-state scholarships for more players.
Mississippi currently has no lottery system in place, hurting the number of recruits MSU and other in-state institutions can sign in comparison to other states’ schools.
“With seven of our sister schools in the SEC having lottery-based scholarship programs, we signed seven boys this year, and some of them signed more than 20,” Polk lamented. “The playing field remains unfair in college baseball, and the SEC knows it, but there’s nothing they can do. At least, they say there’s nothing they can do. If it were a football issue, I bet they could fix it.”
The league is as strong now as it has ever been, leading the nation in RPI per conference for the last several years, and they sent nine teams to NCAA Regionals in 2005.
All 12 head coaches who skippered teams last season are returning, an unusual occurrence in a high profile conference like the SEC.