ATLANTA — Evan Mitchell”s Homecoming couldn”t have gone any better.
The Marietta, Ga., native might not have known the kind of history he was engineering on the mound — he nearly led the Mississippi State baseball team to back-to-back shutouts in a NCAA tournament regional for the first time in team history — but he was well aware of the extra energy gained from pitching 18 miles from where he grew up.
Mitchell, a freshman, gave up three runs on five hits in eight innings, the longest outing of his career, leading MSU to an 8-3 win and a spot in the Atlanta Regional title game. He struck out eight and walked five.
“It”s definitely nice to get to pitch in front of friends and family,” Mitchell said, “but I didn”t want to get too caught up in that. I wanted to treat it like another day, another outing.
“There were some people (friends) that surprised me at the end, and it was kind of nice to see them. But once in a while when I got in the dugout I heard my friends yell and I tried to kind of tune it out.”
Mitchell went over 100 pitches for the second straight start. He threw 108 in a five-inning outing to Florida in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
In his past three appearances, Mitchell has gone 17 1/3 innings, struck out 17, and surrendered just five earned runs.
Mitchell”s late-season form is more impressive considering MSU struggled on the mound last season with 35 starts by freshmen.
“He did a really good job of attacking the strike zone for the most part,” MSU coach John Cohen. “His stuff is outstanding and the competitiveness was there. A year ago, if Evan would have been in our program, he would have thrown 80 to 90 innings. I think we”re at a stage now where he can be brought along a little more slowly and be progressed at a nice rate.”
Cohen wasn”t sure how Mitchell would handle a Homecoming on such a big stage.
“When kids go home, you can be really concerned about it or go out there and do your thing,” Cohen said. “There”s no doubt Evan was locked in tonight and just did a super job throwing in front of his home folks.”
Mitchell faced three left-handed hitters in the top of Austin Peay”s lineup, and working with an eight-run cushion after the fourth inning, he attacked the strike zone and overcame five walks and a hit batter.
“(Cohen and pitching coach Butch Thompson) said they wanted me to fill up strike zone as much as I could and as early as I could,” Mitchell said, “not only the fastball, but breaking balls and changeups a little bit to lefties. They wanted me to get my two-seam working away from the barrel and just stay ahead as much as I could.”
Though Mitchell”s friends and family enjoyed the Wheeler High School graduate”s performance, his high school coach and former MSU catcher David McDonald, who played at MSU from 1967-69, had a special reason to enjoy the game.
McDonald lost Mitchell for half of his senior season to a broken orbital bone when he was playing shortstop.
“I was real concerned last spring after he had the injury,” McDonald said. “Coach Thompson and them were getting real scared about if he”s gonna be able to recover in time, but he did. He worked hard all summer and late last spring with me.
“You know how hard this kid is going to work and how much he”s going to put into perfecting his craft. I was thrilled he could make the impact he has as a freshman.”
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