State delivers sweep of Kentucky to cap big week on the diamond

It was a tumultuous start to the week for a Mississippi State baseball team looking for life.

The Diamond Dawgs came home from Auburn with another rough series loss and Monday brought the end of head coach Chris Lemonis’ tenure in Starkville. The players were faced with a choice of coasting to season’s end or fighting back and they chose the latter.

Four games came along and four wins followed for a Bulldog team now led by pitching coach Justin Parker. It culminated with a series sweep over Kentucky as the Bulldog bullpen kept the Wildcats at bay while the offense had some big at bats in a 6-1 Sunday finale.

The Bulldog bullpen was arguably the story of the weekend. The unit threw 15.0 scoreless innings in the three games with just six hits and 16 strikeouts while walking six batters. Ben Davis, Dane Burns and Luke Dotson threw the final 6.0 innings on Sunday with David and Dotson pitching for the second day in a row.

“We feel like Ben is very vibrant. Ben bounces back very well,” Parker said. “He’s done twice in a weekend quite often, maybe back to backs. His feedback is always very good. Dotson was probably on fumes there a little bit late, but he’s our toughest guy. He’s got our best fastball and, in my opinion, one of the best left-handed fastball in the league. There’s nobody I trust more out there and it was his game at that point.”

While the pitching staff navigated the game extremely well, it wasn’t without some headaches throughout the game. Karson Ligon started and allowed some traffic on the bases throughout his stint, but the Wildcats could never deal him a devastating blow.

In his 3.0 innings, Ligon gave up a two-out triple in the first and had Bryce Chance rob a two-run home run to end the inning. His next three innings began with him putting a runner on base with two hit batters and one walk.

Ligon allowed one hit, one run, one walk and two hit batters while striking out four. Davis came in with no outs in the fourth and a runner on base that would come home on a sacrifice fly, but UK got nothing else offensively the rest of the game.

State offense comes through with big situational at bats

On the offensive side of the Bulldogs, they did make the Wildcats pay for letting runners on base.

State had seven hits with Joe Powell delivering the big one on a two-run single in the sixth that would get State some distance. MSU had taken a 2-0 lead in the third inning on productive outs from Sawyer Reeves and Ace Reese.

Starting lefty Ben Cleaver was finally chased from the game in the sixth after putting two on when Chance got a bunt single to load the bases with one out and Powell had the two-run single. Ross Highfill’s RBI groundout followed and it was 5-1.

Parker gave credit to Cleaver for limiting what State was doing on offense. Cleaver has been one of the SEC’s best Sunday pitchers and has been UK’s most effective starter and MSU finally got him out of the game in the sixth, leaving him with four runs and four walks in 5.1 frames.

“Their guy coming in has been really good in league play. He’s a left hander, it’s a big-time fastball. I know the velo is maybe sub-90, but it plays way up. He did a nice job. He got to his glove side; he elevated the ball,” Parker said of Cleaver.

“I thought we grinded him in the first and the third and elevated his pitch count. We would have liked to have done a little more in the second, but I tip my cap to that guy. I think the sluggishness was more facing a really good SEC left hander.”

Powell’s two RBI in the game capped what was a fantastic weekend for him. The senior catcher had two doubles and a home run in the first game of the series and followed that with a walk off RBI single in game two on Saturday. Sunday was two more RBI to the total.

No one had multiple hits on the team but the Bulldogs strung together some big at bats and were situationally strong. It was a common theme for MSU all week.

“I think everybody is just playing for the next guy. We’re finding a way to win right now. Being aggressive, passive or whatever the offense needs is a big deal,” second baseman Gatlin Sanders said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence now and hopefully we can keep that going.”

Up Next

MSU (29-19, 10-14 SEC) has the midweek off this week to prepare for a monster series against rival Ole Miss. The Rebels come to Starkville to take on the Bulldogs in a series that is critical for State’s chances of getting into postseason.

To get into the Regionals, the Bulldogs will likely have to get to at least 13 wins and 14 wins would likely lock them into a spot in postseason. The three-game set at Dudy Noble begins on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network. Saturday’s game is slated for 2 p.m. with Sunday’s at 1 p.m.