The No. 18 Mississippi State Bulldogs (22-8, 7-5 SEC) will be without one of their team captains this weekend when they travel to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers, head baseball coach Ron Polk announced Thursday.”Jeffrey Rea’s grandfather passed away last night, so Jeffrey will not be on the trip,” Polk said. “He’s heading back to Nettleton to be with his family.”
Rae, who has started 90 straight games for the Bulldogs, will be replaced at second by freshman Brandon Turner, who is the team’s usual starting shortstop.
“We’ll make a decision tomorrow as to which youngster will play shortstop to fill out our lineup,” Polk said.
Rae was elected co-captain of the squad by his teammates before the season started and had mixed emotions about missing the series, Polk said.
“He felt real bad he couldn’t go,” Polk said. “I told him to take care of his family business, and hopefully we’ll win some games up in Knoxville for him.”
The Volunteers (20-13, 6-6 SEC) are currently in fourth place in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division, one game behind both Vanderbilt and South Carolina and two games behind the Florida Gators.
MSU is currently tied with University of Mississippi for second place in the SEC West. Both schools are one game back of division-leading Arkansas.
The trip to Knoxville will be the second road series in a row for the Bulldogs after taking two of three games from Arkansas last weekend.
“We’re in the middle of a nine-game road swing,” Polk said. “We just finished playing a really good Arkansas team in Fayetteville and were fortunate to win the series 2-1.
“Pitching hasn’t been our forte so far, and we’ll need to pitch really good in Knoxville.”
The Bulldogs will travel to Tennessee just days after defeating South Alabama 5-1 in a midweek game at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
The neutral-site game drew 3,370 and featured a career-best six-inning three-hit outing from true freshman pitcher Tyler Whitney.
“I was able to pitch off my fastball and get ahead of some hitters,” he said.
Whitney (2-1) struck out eight batters in the contest and allowed only a single run in his longest outing in an MSU uniform.
Designated hitter Brian LaNinfa and right fielder Andy Rice both turned in multi-hit performances in the game, while first baseman Mitch Moreland paced the team with two RBIs.
Normal Friday starter Aaron Weatherford worked two innings of relief in the game, still recovering from tendonitis in his throwing shoulder.
Weatherford seemed to find his rhythm again on the mound, though, striking out five of the six batters he faced in two innings of work.
“It felt good,” Weatherford said. “I had all my stuff working for me.”
Polk said Weatherford will be available out of the bullpen for this weekend’s Tennessee series but will not start.