Mississippi State split its midweek games this week, dropping a 17-12 slugfest at South Alabama Tuesday before rebounding at home against Memphis 6-3 Wednesday.
Tuesday’s loss was the Bulldogs’ fourth straight and sixth in a seven-game stretch that included a three-game sweep at the hands of Georgia last weekend.
The Jaguars chased MSU starter Michael Busby in the first inning after he surrendered a three-run homer to Adam Heisler.
Busby gave way to Lee Swindle, who fared little better. Swindle pitched two-plus innings, but a rocky third led to four more Jaguar runs and a 7-1 USA lead.
The Bulldogs wouldn’t go down easily, however, sending 12 men to the plate in a six-run fourth inning to knot the score at seven.
After junior first baseman Connor Powers kicked off the scoring with a two-run double, the Bulldogs received runs on three RBI-singles and a fielders choice.
The Jaguars responded in kind, however, taking the lead for good with four runs in the bottom half of the inning.
USA added another four-run frame in the seventh and plated two more in the eighth, giving the Jaguars a nine-run cushion heading into State’s final at-bat.
While the deficit proved insurmountable for the Bulldogs, it didn’t keep them from making some noise and costing the home team a few baseballs before being shut down.
Junior Luke Adkins led things off with a pinch-hit double and scored on a two-run homer by junior Jet Butler.
After a pair of strikeouts, senior Brooks Lewis belted a pinch-hit homer, followed by a home run by Powers before South Alabama brought in Brandon Brown, who struck out freshman Frank Rawdow to end the game.
Greg Johnson picked up the win for the Jaguars despite allowing 6 runs, 5 earned, in five and two-thirds innings.
For the Bulldogs, freshman Devin Jones was charged with the loss, after giving up four runs and retiring only one batter.
Tuesday was a new day for the Bulldogs, one that saw the struggling club return home where it has won 13 of its 14 games this season.
The game didn’t start off like head coach John Cohen would have scripted it, as a pair of singles before and after a pair of wild pitches staked Tiger starter Josh Ross to a 1-0 lead.
The lead didn’t last long, though, as MSU had Ross’s number early.
State plated single runs in each of the first two innings, and missed opportunities to tally even more runs. The Bulldogs stranded four runners in the first two frames, including a man on third in the first inning and the bases loaded in the second.
The missed opportunities did not hurt the Bulldogs in the end, however, as they were able to pick up a run each in the fourth and sixth innings, as well as a pair of runs in the fifth, to offset the single runs Memphis picked up in the sixth and eighth.
While the game served as a clinic in picking up single runs, with the teams combining for seven one-run innings, the Bulldogs epitomized the small-ball mindset in the third inning when they picked up a run without the ball leaving the infield.
Redshirt freshman Brent Brownlee led off the inning with a walk, then stole second and third.
Butler came up with two outs, having grounded out twice in two at-bats. He laid a perfectly executed bunt down the third base line, scoring Brownlee and reaching first safely.
Cohen said while the bunt wasn’t a called play, the team works on the technique every day in practice and Butler is comfortable with it.
“Some guys have really taken to it and [Butler] is one of them,” Cohen said. “Going forward, all of our players – one through nine – will be able to do that but he’s one of the few guys who’ve been able to master it so far.”
Freshman Caleb Reed picked up the win for the Bulldogs, giving up one run in four innings in relief of starter Drew Hollinghead. The win was the first for Reed, who improved to 1-1 on the season.
Reed said he credited the defense for its stellar play.
“The defensive play behind me was just phenomenal,” he said. “Every ball [Memphis] hit, the outfielders went and got or the infielders made a great play. The defense really helped me out tonight.”
Cohen said Reed reminded him of Jeff Brantley, a former Bulldog who still owns the school and SEC records for wins in a season (18) and career (45), but he said Reed has some developing to do.
“[Reed] can compete, he just gets to two strikes and doesn’t have that pitch where he can really put a guy away,” Cohen said. “Instead of it being a three-pitch at-bat it’s foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, ball. Now it’s a seven-pitch at-bat and the ball leaves the ballpark because the guy has examined every single pitch in every part of the strike zone.”
The Bulldogs’ homestand was a short one, as they hit the road this weekend to play at Arkansas.
Butler said he looks forward to the opportunity to play a great team in a great environment.
“Arkansas is a pretty fun place,” he said. “[Arkansas is] off to a really good start. We have to go in there and play even better than we did [Wednesday] and keep executing.”