Mississippi State University (12-10,0-3 SEC) came into their matchup with Texas Southern University (7-14, 4-1 SWAC) with the goal of starting a winning streak.
With Cole Gordon on the mound, they were able to do just that with an 11-6 win. Gordon earned the win with two innings pitched and two strikeouts.
The offense was explosive for the second night in a row as they had 14 hits on the night, and junior Hunter Stovall, an infielder from Pelham, Alabama, had three of those hits in four at-bats and an RBI.
“We have been working our butts off,” Stovall said. “We took the Vanderbilt (University) series, and it kind of fueled us and we kind of said we do not like that. So we are going to make a change and these are two good games to work on our approach, work on our swing.”
Stovall said that he hopes that the stuff they figured out at the plate will carry on over into the weekends series against the University of Missouri (17-5, 1-2 SEC). He has also figured out himself and found what he needs to do at the plate.
“I have been doing a little soul searching, a little relaxing at the plate,” Stovall said. “Not being so anxious, or trying to do too much, and it is working out. We have full confidence in our starting pitchers in the weekend.”
Stovall said all the team has to do is produce runs if the pitchers throw as good this weekend as they did against Vanderbilt. Missouri will offer up some challenges as they have scored 188 runs and given up 74 runs in 22 games, so Stovall said patience is key for the team.
“Just staying together, staying in every pitch, going one pitch at a time,” Stovall said. “If something goes wrong not getting down, just staying up, keeping the vibe of the dugout up. Keeping everybody energetic because it is going to be cold. Hopefully, we can get past that and play some good baseball.”
Seven pitchers in total pitched in Wednesday’s game against Texas Southern. This was in part due to the 18 innings that they had to play in last two-game midweek series, as well as the fact each had a pitch count of about 30 pitches tonight.
“I think we will be in good shape, unless something pops up, which I kind of doubt it, so everybody should be available for this weekend,” head coach Gary Henderson said. “You do not have to worry about covering 18 innings. I feel like for the most part we did a good job of covering the 18 innings.”
MSU will take on University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, in their first SEC road series of the season this weekend. Henderson said he will look at Mizzou more closely on the way there.
“I will have plenty of time later tonight, I will look at them for the first time, I will look at the video tomorrow,” Henderson said. “I will probably watch some more of it Friday morning. By the time we play Friday night, I will have a really good idea of what they do.”
