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No. 18 Diamond Dawgs look to bounce back at Astros Challenge in Houston

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•about 12 hours•

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noah sullivan2
Noah Sullivan (Photo by Mississippi State Athletics)

Frustrations were high at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday night.

Mississippi State had gotten itself in a hole against No. 21 Troy and trailed 5-0. After battling back to tie the game, the No. 18 Diamond Dawgs had two innings in a row with the lead runs on base in the eighth and the ninth.

State had bases loaded with one out in a tie game in the eighth inning before Noah Sullivan and Hunter Hines each struck out. Trailing by a run in the ninth, State had Troy teetering again with two on and one out but came away empty and ultimately lost 6-5.

“I thought we did a great job getting back into it but we had so many opportunities to score,” coach Chris Lemonis said of the Troy game. “I don’t mind if you don’t score, but you’ve got to compete and play hard. We’re having our worst at bats when those are out there.”

Weekend presents opportunity for Bulldog baseball

At 6-2 and losses to two top 25 teams in the midweek on the resume, there’s no foul to this point for the Diamond Dawgs. The frustrations within the team and fanbase lie with the fact that State has had chances to come through offensively and haven’t done it – even in some of the victories.

The SEC schedule won’t be as kind as some of the teams already in the Bulldogs’ way and State still has some tough games in non-conference play as well. It begins this weekend as the team takes its first weekend road trip and plays at the Houston Astros Foundation Classic in Texas.

State will have a chance to go play in an MLB ball park and see some baseball programs that carry a rich tradition behind the jerseys. Joining the Bulldogs from the SEC in the event will be Tennessee and Texas A&M as the three squads take on Rice, Arizona and Oklahoma State.

It’s in that order for the Diamond Dawgs as State starts with the Owls on Friday at 11:05 a.m. on Friday with Arizona at 3:05 p.m. Saturday and Oklahoma State at 2:05 p.m. on Sunday. All games can be streamed on Astros.com or on the Astros YouTube channel.

There’s certainly some reasons for frustrations, but the Bulldogs have also had some good come from the first eight games of the schedule. State has 11 home runs as a team with four different players notching two home runs each.

Noah Sullivan has a .400 batting average after transferring in from USC Upstate and he is tied with Bryce Chance for the team lead with 10 hits. Reed Stallman and Aaron Downs show off the depth of the lineup as they have two home runs each but haven’t started in every game this year.

On the mound, the State pitching staff has been stellar with a 2.42 ERA and 102 strikeouts to 31 walks in 67.0 innings. The team had 20 strikeouts on Tuesday night in the loss against Troy with three of the six runs coming on solo home runs.

Pico Kohn (1-0, 0.79 ERA) enters game one on Friday against Rice showing the signs of being a true ace with 11.1 innings, five hits, one run, zero walks and 22 strikeouts. State has also had some big games from the bullpen and guys like Ben Davis, Chase Hungate, and others are earning their stripes.

For State, the big hits need to come this weekend. There’s a bad taste in the mouths of Bulldogs everywhere after some tough at bats to start the year. This weekend would be a good time for a coming out party.

“Going into the week we knew that we had a big week. A lot of good competition. We have to be better. We can’t leave guys on base. We’ve got to come up with big hits and that’s just what it is,” Sullivan said. “Baseball is really hard, and we have the best hitters in the country. It just takes one pitch and one at bat for everything to get rolling.”  

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