Heading into this weekend’s rival series with the Mississippi Rebels, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have managed to rack up some confidence thanks to midweek victories against a couple of hyphenated schools, Alabama-Birmingham and Louisiana-Monroe.
The Rebels have served as whipping boys for the Bulldogs the past two years. State has won eight out of 10 games played between the teams.
This year, however, Mississippi has climbed to a No. 4 ranking in the Collegiate Baseball Division I poll.
But are the Rebs really that good?
Craig Tatum felt good enough to answer that one after his game-winning hit against UAB Tuesday night.
“No,” Tatum said without a hint of hesitation. “We’re not scared of them,” he added.
MSU had just completed its 6-5 comeback of the Blazers when Tatum made the remark. With the score tied in the ninth inning and one out, Tatum stepped to the plate with Jeffrey Rea on second base.
“I was just ready to get a hit,” said Tatum, who was 0-for-4 leading up to his final attempt. “I figured if I didn’t get a hit that last at bat, it would have been a long night and a long day tomorrow.”
After taking the first two pitches for balls, Tatum sliced a low fastball to right field that sailed out of the right fielder’s reach for an RBI-double.
“It wasn’t even a strike,” he admitted. “I was sitting on fastball, but I had in my mind they’d throw me a slider. I was going to swing no matter what.”
State reliever Todd Doolittle outshined all pitchers that night, including all seven used by the Blazers. Entering the game with nobody out in the sixth, Doolittle retired the side with a double play and another ground ball.
He then did something he said he did in junior college. He whiffed eight consecutive batters. Six went down swinging, two looking.
“I just went out there and pounded the (strike) zone,” said Doolittle, who earned his first career win in a career-long four innings. “I made a couple mistakes, but I was able to come back and command my curveball. I didn’t think they could touch it at all.”
After Doolittle struck out his eighth straight opponent, he had one more out between him and the win, but two Tyler Scarbrough errors put one runner on second and the other runner, Zac Ward, sprinting home trying for the go-ahead run. First baseman Brad Jones retrieved the overthrown ball near the right field bleachers and threw to Tatum who applied the tag for the out.
Steve Gendron and Tatum went deep Wednesday night as the Bulldogs defeated Monroe 8-4. Gendron’s first-inning homerun followed a Jeffrey Rea single and gave MSU a 2-0 advantage. Tatum made it 3-0 when he led off the bottom of the third with a long ball right-center.
Starter Josh Johnson and eventual winner Brett Cleveland each allowed two-run homers to Monroe’s Ben Johnson in the fourth and sixth innings to tie the game 4-4. But the Bulldogs battled back to score three runs in the seventh and one in the eighth for the victory.
“It’s a little disappointing when the same guy hits two home runs and gets all the runs for them,” Gendron said. “But I was confident our pitching staff was going to hold the lead and we were going to continue to swing the bat as we did.”
It seems like the only thing holding the team back is injury.
“Every game’s an adventure for us,” head coach Ron Polk said. “It’s not easy when you got two starters down (Thomas Berkery and Jon Mungle), and two guys that you’ve counted on as depth guys (Michael Rutledge and Bunky Kateon), they’re not with us. I may have to do the best coaching job I’ve ever done.”
And MSU might have to play its best baseball of the season this weekend to come away with its first Southeastern Conference series win.
At least Tatum’s not scared.