Two games this weekend ended with Jet Butler taking the final swing. The second time the junior infielder got it right.
Saturday, with MSU trailing by a run, Butler came to bat with two outs and a runner on first. He struck out looking on three pitches to end the game, an 11-10 loss to Northern Illinois.
Sunday, Butler wasn’t in the line-up. He cheered from the bench as his team jumped out to a three-run lead, then watched it disappear on a five-run fifth inning for North Florida.
Then he watched as his teammates cut a two-run Osprey lead in half in the ninth inning before being called on to pinch hit against UNF hurler Tucker Pryor. Butler was the 19th Bulldog to see action in the game.
“I was ready to swing,” Butler said. “I’d been sitting for a long time.”
And did he ever swing. He hammered the first pitch he saw over the right field wall, giving his team the lead and the 9-7 win.
“Yesterday [Saturday] was a tough loss for our team and for me personally. It was a tough night,” Butler said. “It’s good to be able to come out and do something good to help the team today.”
First-year Bulldog skipper John Cohen said he sent Butler to the plate because he had done well against the types of pitches Pryor was throwing.
“[Butler has] done such a nice job from the left side of staying on soft stuff and that’s exactly what the guy gave us,” Cohen said.
Butler said Cohen was very animated when he told the Bulldogs how to hit Pryor.
“He was telling us in a lot of words that the pitcher was throwing a lot of junk and we needed to get down on it and have better at-bats,” Butler said. “He was right.”
Sunday’s game was the would-be championship game of the 2009 BankFirst Classic. Though the double-round-robin event did not award a trophy or name a winner, both teams entered with two wins and one loss and only one emerged with bragging rights.
The weekend marked Cohen’s debut as Mississippi State’s head baseball coach. Cohen, who now sports the same No. 11 he wore during his playing days, said he could not help but feel emotional after an 8-1 win Friday over Northern Illinois.
“It was really strange walking through that tunnel, I’ve got to be honest with you,” Cohen said. “I’ve felt that way everywhere I’ve been but obviously being here it’s much, much different.”
Twelve of the 14 pitchers on MSU’s roster pitched on the weekend. One of the two remaining pitchers, freshman David Hayes, was warming up in MSU’s bullpen late in Sunday’s game. In addition, State used 16 different position players this weekend.
“We have a lot of guys who can contribute in a lot of different ways and we really practice that way,” Cohen said. “It really takes a good mindset and the right type of attitude to accept that, especially when a lot of these guys played a lot more a year ago.”
State hits the diamond again Tuesday when they host South Alabama, which beat No. 6 Ole Miss Sunday. Tuesday, the Dawgs finish a stretch of six games in six days when they host Mississippi Valley State.