The 2008 baseball season didn’t open as Mississippi State head coach Ron Polk and his Diamond Dawgs had hoped, as the team dropped two contests to the North Florida Ospreys in Jacksonville, Fla., and took a hard series loss.Friday showed the appearance of a strong start to the season as the Bulldogs topped the Ospreys in an 8-2 victory for a fifth-straight, season-opening win.
The Bulldogs’ offense was sparked by a grand slam from senior outfielder Andy Rice.
The slam marked Rice’s sixth career home run and second grand slam after his walk-off grand slam against Auburn last season. Rice said until that point he was having difficulty finding balls to hit off Ospreys starter Ty Pryor.
“I was his first batter in the game, and he had been challenging me with fastballs up to that point,” Rice said. “He piped one right down the middle, and I just stayed back on it and made good contact. I did what I could with it.”
The long ball made another appearance in the sixth inning as sophomore second baseman Brandon Turner knocked a solo home run over right center field.
Turner would finish the game 3-for-5 with two runs batted in but was pulled in the early innings of Saturday’s loss and saw only pinch-hitting action in Sunday’s game. Turner is still battling a nagging hamstring injury.
Senior lefthander Justin Pigott pitched five solid innings and had nine strikeouts while giving up just five hits. John Lalor, Forrest Moore and Andy Wilson kept the Ospreys’ bats cold to pull off the win.
North Florida head coach Dusty Rhodes said he was disappointed his team’s bats never really came alive in the game.
“We made some mistakes tonight. We have a lot of young guys,” Rhodes said. “I’m disappointed that we didn’t make more contact at the plate. But this is what we’re going to have to do to build our program. I could easily have scheduled somebody easy, but I don’t want to do that.”
On Saturday, the Dawgs came out on the wrong end of a slugfest as they suffered their first loss of the season in a 17-9 defeat.
The Dawgs’ bats came out strong in the early innings as they scored two runs in the first inning, one each in the second and third and five in the fourth. Third baseman Conner Powers belted a two-run homer to right field to open up the game, and Turner had a two-run single in the fourth before being pulled.
However, North Florida exploded for five runs in the sixth inning and another six in the seventh to secure the win.
Bulldogs starter Chad Crosswhite pitched five-plus innings and was tagged for nine hits and seven earned runs.
Reliever Jared Wesson took the loss after pitching in the sixth and seventh and giving up three earned runs.
Junior catcher Johnny Allen led the Bulldogs’ offense, going 3-for-3 and grabbing two RBIs.
Sunday saw a first-inning slugfest by the Ospreys as they tagged Bulldogs sophomore starter Ricky Bowen for five runs. Bowen would take the loss after working four innings, giving up seven total runs and walking four.
Junior closer Aaron Weatherford came in for part of the eighth and all of the ninth and struck out three batters while giving up just one hit.
Polk said he was slightly disappointed in the pitching as a whole over the Saturday and Sunday games.
“We didn’t pitch very well the last two days, and North Florida has a nice ballclub,” Polk said. “The two big innings they had started off with a walk. The umpires were tight, and we had to aim the ball a little bit.”
State tried to make a rally in the fourth inning Sunday as Ryan Duffy, making his first career start as catcher, slapped a three-run homer to center field.
However, a three-run home run by North Florida’s Michael Smith would ensure the Ospreys’ 11-6 victory.
Designated hitter Jason Nappi would pace the Bulldogs’ offense, going 4-for-4 and knocking in one run while scoring another.
Polk said he had known going into the weekend that it would be a challenging road trip for the Bulldogs.
“North Florida has a good ballclub, and we knew this would be a tough road trip,” Polk said. “North Florida had 17 freshmen last year. Last year, they also knocked off some fine teams.”
Polk said pitchers had to be more aggressive with North Florida’s lineup.
“If you give them 2-0 and 3-1 counts, they will hurt you,” he said.
The Bulldogs will open up a 14-game homestand at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday when they take on the University of Alabama-Birmingham at 4 p.m.