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Diamond Dawgs needing to get back on track in road series at No. 10 Oklahoma

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•about 12 hours•

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Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis

With six-straight wins under its belt, Mississippi State looked like a team ready to make a statement in week one of SEC play.

Instead, the Diamond Dawg players looked on from the dugout as No. 8 Texas came to Starkville and took all three games in the Longhorns’ first SEC series in school history. It was the ninth time in the last four years that State has been swept in the SEC, but this one didn’t mirror a lot of those blowouts of year’s past.

In many ways, the three close losses the Bulldogs encountered were even more frustrating. In all three games, State made critical errors or decisions that would haunt them, and they were left with either the tying or lead run on base in every game.

“We feel like we’re close, but close doesn’t win,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “The message was that we’ve got to do collectively more. Not a lot more, but we’ve got to be better in the bigger moments. That’s where I tip my hat to Texas. They made pitches and all three games there was a big play in the last inning.

“We’ve pulled every number from that weekend and it’s amazing – it makes you want to puke. The reality is they outplayed us and that’s the challenge to us as a coaching staff and players that we’ve got to do more.”

Oklahoma matchup looks to be critical for State early in SEC schedule

State (14-7, 0-3 SEC) isn’t out of anything for postseason, but the margin for error always gets slimmer when teams are swept.

It makes for a big weekend as the Diamond Dawgs travel to Norman to take on No. 10 Oklahoma (18-2, 2-1 SEC). It’s a Sooners team led by a coach in Skip Johnson who has been at OU a year longer than Lemonis. A year after the State coach won the school’s first national title, Johnson would take his team all the way to the championship game before losing to Ole Miss.

Johnson has been known for his prowess as a pitching coach and he has another potential star in his Friday night starter – Kyson Witherspoon (5-0, 1.91 ERA). Twin to the team’s projected Sunday starter Malachie Witherspoon (2-1, 5.73 ERA), Kyson has gotten every series off to a good start this year and that presents a major challenge for the Bulldogs on Friday night.

“Competing in every moment. It’s going to be a great series. They’re good,” Lemonis said of the series. “We’ve watched them all week and it’s kind of the focus. They have some really good arms on that pitching staff and are real athletic. We’re going to have to bring our A game and go get some wins in our league.”

State enters the weekend with the same rotation as LHP Pico Kohn starts on Friday, RHP Ben Davis pitches on Saturday and RHP Karson Ligon on Sunday. Kohn and Ligon had good enough starts against Texas despite the losses but Davis didn’t get a chance to work deeper into the game.

All three are needed as the team hopes to get back on track. It starts Friday night at 6:30 p.m. for the first game with a Saturday first pitch at 4 p.m. and Sunday’s game at 2 p.m. The veterans on the team have been preaching a message to the team not to panic.

“It’s 30 games, luckily. Three games isn’t the end of the world even though it may seem that way to a lot of people,” Noah Sullivan said. “We’re a really good ball club with a lot of really good ball players. We’ve been playing really good baseball probably since Southern Miss that first midweek. As annoying as it is, we’re all saying we’re really close but we just have to be that much better.”

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