Mississippi State head baseball coach Ron Polk has officially declared his Bulldogs (13-6) are in a slump, and there might not be a worse time for it.
After two Birmingham teams visited Dudy Noble Field, Polk Dement Stadium, MSU had just eight hits, one run and a couple of losses to show for it.
Tonight, the team goes on the road to play its first series outside the state of Mississippi. The competition? The No. 1 Louisiana State University Tigers (19-3).
“I’m sure the LSU Tigers are looking at the scores the last two days and licking their chops,” Polk said.
That would be a temptation for just about anyone after the Bulldogs’ 10-1 loss to Birmingham-Southern Tuesday and State’s 6-0 loss to Samford Wednesday.
In the BSC catastrophe, MSU infielders looked out of sync all night. They committed three errors and allowed six infield singles, many of which could have been outs under the normally stingy bunch.
On the other side, Wes Letson held State to one run off four hits during his seven-inning stint.
“A lot is due to Letson,” Polk said. “He pitched well against Alabama and Georgia, two SEC ball clubs.”
Not to mention the Panthers (16-5 have won their last 16.
But what went wrong in the Samford game?
Against Samford (4-14), MSU mustered only three hits and failed to score a run off complete-gamer Joe Denson. But unlike BSC’s Letson, Denson isn’t Samford’s Friday-night ace. Denson, a senior, had only pitched 12 and one-third innings in his previous three years. Denson, who picked up his first career win Wednesday night, is a shortstop.
“He’s a control guy,” Polk said. “I think he walked four, and we just didn’t have a lot of base runners. We’re in one of those hitting slumps.”
So is it even logical to think the Bulldogs could fair better against the class of the Southeastern Conference than against a middle-of-the-pack Ohio Valley Conference team? Is it reasonable to expect State to rough up LSU’s Justin Meier (4-0, 2.11 ERA) more than it did Samford’s shortstop?
“I’m just glad we’re going on the road to see another venue,” Polk said.
The last time the Bulldogs went down to Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, 2002, the bats heated up for a 15-4 Friday-night win and cooled down for a 7-3 Saturday loss. Sunday’s game was rained out.
If the Bulldog bats don’t get hot again this weekend, more inclement weather could be the only saving grace.