The Mississippi Rebels made a trip to Starkville over the weekend and showed why they’ve earned a top-five national ranking. The Rebels (24-4, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) displayed the ability to do something they haven’t done much the past two years-beat Mississippi State (17-10, 3-6 SEC).
All three of Mississippi’s weekend starters went into the series with spotless records at a combined 12-0. Two of them came out unfazed.
Game 1
The Rebels beat the Bulldogs for the first time in nine tries (SEC regular season or tournament games) Friday night, and the 7-1 final made it convincing.
UM starter Mark Holliman (5-0) kept his perfect record in tact by shutting out MSU in his 7 1/3 innings on the mound.
“(Holliman) was effectively wild,” MSU head coach Ron Polk said. “I thought he made some quality pitches when he had to.”
Holliman delivered his timeliest pitches in the third inning when his team led by a single run. With the bases loaded and one out, he sent Steve Gendron back to the dugout after swinging at strike three. He then forced Brad Corley to hit into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning without any harm.
“You don’t get too many opportunities against a pitcher like Mark,” Polk said.
That would prove to be the Bulldogs’ best chance of the game. Holliman finished with eight strikeouts, five hits and three walks before reliever Brian Pettway came in from his outfield position to shut the door.
Stephen Head turned in the offensive highlight of the evening when he blasted a Jamie Gant pitch up into the night sky and back down around the RV section of the parking lot past right field. The two-run homerun ended Gant’s outing.
Game 2
MSU earned its second win against a top-five club Saturday and evened the series with a 7-5 decision in front of a season-high 4,887 at Dudy Noble Field, Polk DeMent Stadium. Starter Alan Johnson notched his first win of the season, working 5 1/3 innings. For the other side, Brae Wright (5-1) suffered his first loss of the season.
State got the ball rolling in the bottom of the first after Gendron reached base on an error. Craig Tatum followed, and with one ball and two strikes, he drilled a ball over the right field wall for his fourth round-tripper of the year. Corley liked what he saw from the on-deck circle, so he too went deep to right to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 advantage.
“I don’t think he’s been hit like that in a while,” Tatum said. “He’s been dominating in the SEC, so for us to jump on him early and get in his head that we weren’t going to lay down and die-that kind of rattled him a little.”
Wright, who beat MSU in the Mayor’s Trophy game last year in Jackson, allowed a season-high seven runs (five earned) in his 5 1/3 innings.
Johnson gave up five runs off eight hits, but early run support and late pitching by Saunders Ramsey secured the win for Johnson and the Bulldogs. Earning his fourth save, the Starkville native used his submarine delivery to limit Mississippi to one hit and no runs.
The Rebels had scored two runs in the sixth to pull within one when Ramsey entered the game, but with two outs and the bases juiced, he immediately forced Charlie Babineaux to fly out to stop the bleeding.
“What I try to do every time I come into the ballgame is just imagine there’s nobody on, nobody out, and you’ve got to get everybody out,” said Ramsey, who has now pitched 21 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. “That was a big situation, but if I think about how big it is, it’ll make me nervous.”
Ramsey, a right-hander, said he was surprised to pitch so much against a batting order that included seven lefties.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Ramsey said. “I thought they might use Brad Corley in a closing situation.”
Game 3
Stephen Head started the game, finished the game and did almost everything in-between for Mississippi as the Rebels won Sunday’s rubber match 4-2.
Head (4-0) threw eight innings of scoreless baseball with his only slip-up coming in the sixth inning when Brad Corley smacked a changeup for a two-run shot to right-center. The homerun gave MSU a 2-1 lead that it failed to keep.
“I didn’t think he was going to try to challenge me right there,” said Corley, who got nothing to hit the first two pitches of the at bat. “They had been throwing me changeups all day, so I was pretty much sitting on changeup.”
Head needed no designated hitter, and at the plate, the sophomore hit 2-for-5 with one RBI.
MSU starter Jeff Lacher hung with Head for the first five innings as neither team could score a run. But at the end of his 6 1/3 innings, Lacher had given up three runs, two earned, and didn’t have the run support to avoid his fourth straight loss.
“Oh man, that kid’s a competitor,” Lacher said of Head, who struck out eight and held MSU to five hits in a complete game. “Any time you throw a complete in college with a metal bat, I don’t care what people say about you, you’re doing something right.”
The Bulldogs go on the road this week, but they’ll stay in state with two midweek games against Southern Mississippi.