State looks to stay hot, lock up postseason in final weekend

Three weeks ago, there was a pretty clear vision as to how Mississippi State could continue its season beyond the SEC Tournament.

History has stated that SEC teams with 14 or more wins have been near locks to make a Regional if the teams are above .500 overall. With State sitting at 7-14 in league play and three weeks to go, that meant finishing out the regular season with at least a 7-2 mark.

Following the Diamond Dawgs’ series loss at Auburn, head coach Chris Lemonis was relieved of his duties and the program was turned over to pitching coach Justin Parker and the remaining staff for the rest of the year. Since that time, State is 7-1 overall with a 6-1 mark in SEC play and they hit this weekend with a chance to clinch postseason.

“The message going back to coach Lemonis’ message to us over the course of March and April was to respond,” Parker said. “Your mental toughness as a person and as a player only gets called into question when things get hard. That was my challenge to our guys. Everyone is looking at you now to see how you bounce back and what you do, and our group has done that. I’m very proud of how they’ve pulled together.”

Last two weekends have given Diamond Dawgs a chance to finish

Ahead of the series finale weekend at last-place Missouri, MSU (31-20, 12-15 SEC) has built positive momentum. The Bulldogs started it by run-ruling Memphis one day after Lemonis’ firing. Over that weekend, a sweep of Kentucky brought more life to the bunch.

State continued that momentum last week as the Bulldogs produced a hard-fought series win over Ole Miss. The victory over the Rebels was the eighth in the last nine tries, but more importantly it gave MSU two more Quad I wins for the resume.

“We’ve been playing better, complimentary baseball and that’s the biggest thing. Trending, yes, but we’re not as one dimensional as we were six weeks or a month ago,” Parker said. “We were able to win games a couple of different ways. (Saturday), I thought we were really good offensively. We did enough at the end. Every one of these games are hard to get. Some of them are ugly, but we found a way to get it at the end.”

One of the biggest improvements for better baseball by the Bulldogs has been the play of the defense.

State scuffled on the defensive side for most of the season. The Bulldogs went through several different second basemen and struggled to find chemistry with Sawyer Reeves at second base and Dylan Cupp at shortstop. A move by Reeves to short and Gatlin Sanders nailing down second, however, has brought new life to the unit.

State was last in the SEC in double plays with 20 prior to the last two SEC series and have turned six double plays since. In the Ole Miss series alone, Sanders, Reeves and Hunter Hines combined to turn five double plays including three in the finale.

“I think our mindset has shifted from being scared to get the ball to wanting the ball,” Sanders said. “The mindset of wanting the ball and making the play has been huge for us. I think we’re getting hot right now and hopefully we can carry that on into the postseason.”

The Bulldogs will need to be at their best this weekend to ensure a postseason run is possible.

Missouri (16-35, 3-24 SEC) is at the bottom of the league, but the Tigers are fresh off of a dominating three-game sweep of Texas A&M last week. It has this State team’s attention with a lot on the line for the Diamond Dawgs.

“They have a very unique setup and at times I feel like it’s one of the best home field advantages in the league because it’s so unique,” Parker said. “They’ll have our full attention. We have incredible respect for everybody in this league because it’s so hard to get (wins).”

This week’s series begins on Thursday night with the first two games taking place at 6 p.m. Game three on Saturday is set for 2 p.m.