The Mississippi State Bulldogs split what was supposed to be a three-game series with the Kentucky Wildcats. Sunday’s rainout denied State a chance to win its fifth straight Southeastern Conference Series.
Game 1
Team co-captains Matthew Maniscalco and Paul Maholm kept their respective streaks in tact as MSU took the series opener 8-1 Friday evening.
Maniscalco extended his career-best hitting streak to 16 games, dating back to March 15 against Vanderbilt. Maholm threw seven innings and captured his fifth consecutive win while remaining perfect on Friday nights.
The Bulldogs got to work in the third inning when Jon Mungle ripped his second triple of the year down the right field line. Steve Gendron singled him in on the following pitch, and Matthew Brinson turned on the next pitch to clear the bases and give his team a 3-0 lead.
“(The pitcher) was trying to get that first pitch across for a strike,” Brinson said. “I noticed it my first at-bat and then watching Mungle and them hit. My second at-bat, I got a good part of the bat on it.”
Joseph Hunter added a run in the fourth with an RBI-triple and made it a 5-1 ballgame by scoring on a sacrifice fly.
State added a pair of runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh to finish off the Wildcats 8-1.
Despite giving up a career-high seven bases on balls, Maholm allowed only two hits and improved his ERA by allowing no earned runs.
“(The strike zone) was tight, but it was my fault too–just a lot of balls,” Maholm said. “I got out of a lot of jams, and I got the ground balls when I needed them. The pitches that I made were in the clutch situations.”
Maholm said he felt as though he didn’t deliver a good performance, but added, “A ‘W’ is a ‘W,’ so we’re 9-1 in the SEC now.”
Mungle gave the best hitting performance of his MSU career, going four for five at the plate. “I just went up there with the same approach–not trying to do too much,” Mungle said. “The ball found some holes. I didn’t really hit the ball that hard.”
Is it a double play?
Kentucky threatened in the top of the fifth when an unusual play went the way of the Wildcats.
With Joe Naill on first, UK’s Casey Gilvin hit a ground ball to MSU second baseman Thomas Berkerey. Naill, the runner, bumped Berkerey on the base path, but Berkerey managed to field the ball, tag Naill out and throw to first in time for the apparent double-play.
To the bewilderment of MSU head coach Ron Polk, umpire Tony Walsh ruled Gilvin safe at first. Polk left the dugout and protested on the field for several minutes. The umpires ruled that the play was dead upon Naill’s interference with Berkerey, so Gilvin automatically became safe at first base.
Maholm responded by loading the bases with a couple of walks, but he eventually forced a fly-out to end the inning with no damage done.
“I laughed at Tony Walsh because Tony is a good friend and a good umpire,” Polk said. “He felt like Berkerey had every right in the world to field a ground ball, and the runner hit him first. All of a sudden, we lose a double-play because the runner touched our infielder.
“Basically, what can happen is you can go out there and manslaughter a second baseman–just grab him and throw him to the ground, right?” Polk joked after the game before adding, “You’ve got to give a double-play in that case.”
Game 2
No second basemen were harmed in the playing of Saturday’s game. Instead, UK pitcher Heath Castle went the distance as the Wildcats evened the series with an 8-2 victory.
Kentucky put two runs on the board in the second when Caleb Brock lined a shot just out of third baseman Gendron’s diving reach, bringing home runners from second and third.
The Bulldogs rallied with two outs in the bottom of the third to tie the score at two. After Maniscalco drew a walk and stole second, Gendron drilled a line drive over the shortstop’s head to score a run. Brad Corley followed suit with a nearly identical hit that sent Gendron sliding safe at home.
The Wildcats went up for good in the next inning, posting three runs to go up 5-2. Mike Breyman led off the inning and hit a ball to right field that hit off a diving Corley’s glove. Five batters later, after a run had already scored, Mungle dived for a ball hit to left field by Naill, and it deflected off his glove, allowing two runs to score.
Kentucky put up another three runs in the sixth, and Castle held the Bulldogs to three hits in the last five innings to ensure the win.
“I’ve been getting a little bit better every outing, trying to work hard,” Castle said. “Basically, I tried to stay down in the zone and locate my fast ball, and I had my slider as an out pitch. Keeping the balance of the hitters off–getting them on their front foot–takes their power away.”
Castle gave up seven hits, three walks and struck out five Bulldog batters. His win marked Kentucky’s first victory in the conference, sending MSU to 9-2. in the SEC.