STARKVILLE — The state of Mississippi’s biggest college baseball series is tied after two games to a pair of special pitching performances.
The only problem is the efforts came at different times and in different ways.
The Mississippi State University baseball program relied on the first complete game of the season by junior right-hander Chris Stratton to beat the University of Mississippi 4-0 victory in game one of the three-game set Friday night.
“It’s those special moments when you get to coach elite players doing elite things,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “It’s hard to imagine a lot of pitching performances like that one tonight going on in this country.”
Stratton (8-0), the Southeastern Conference leader in wins, allowed only five hits against a team that knocked him out of the game last year in the first inning in Oxford. Stratton struck out seven, walked one, and pitched to four batters more than the minimum.
“I used to be terrible with pitch counts, but I’ve turned the page and am having a lot more fun,” Stratton said.
Cohen was convinced in a ninth-inning visit to the mound his ace was fine to finish the game.
“(Stratton) looked at me and said, ‘I’m fine’ like one of my daughters telling me to get out of her room,” Cohen said.
Stratton then hit threw a 95-mph fastball.
“Coach asked me if I had any gas left and I said, ‘Heck yeah I got plenty left,’ ” Stratton said. “I was finishing this game no matter what.”
MSU grabbed a 2-0 lead with two unearned scores in the third. After starting Bobby Wahl got the first two outs, Adam Frazier’s single to left extended his streak of consecutive games with a hit to 35. An infield error — one of two by Ole Miss — extended the at-bat. The Bulldogs capitalized as Trey Porter and Daryl Norris followed with back-to-back hits. The error scored one run, while Norris’ hit scored the other.
Wahl (5-1) got out of the sixth on the road in SEC play for the first time this season, but he struggled with his command, throwing 66 strikes in 110 pitches.
“Our goal with Bobby Wahl was to get him to 100 pitches as soon as possible,” Cohen said. “Problem is (Ole Miss reliever Aaron) Greenwood is no picnic.”
The Dispatch has learned from scouting directors and the MSU coaching staff that a team with a pick in the top 10 of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft this summer intends to take Stratton if nothing discouraging happens in the final month of the season.
“I think that’s something I will pursue in the offseason, but right now I’m concentrating on winning games for Mississippi State,” Stratton said. “But trust me, when they’re lining that wall and sitting behind the plate, yeah, they’re hard to miss out there.”
What was hard to miss Saturday was another solid bullpen effort by Ole Miss against an aggressive MSU lineup.
Ole Miss (28-15, 10-10 SEC) got a masterful relief effort from senior R.J. Hively in a 6-2 victory.
The 6-foot-2 right-hander, who was taken out of the starting rotation last week to help the bullpen, allowed just one hit (a single to Frazier) in four shutout innings.
Hively (4-3) hasn’t given up a run yet in his bullpen role. He kept MSU off balance with dominate off-speed pitches for pop outs and other outs that weren’t hit hard.
“R.J. was terrific out there, just a warrior at the end, the last four innings,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “When you make the move (to the bullpen), that’s what you hope for. He did it last Saturday in that 1-0 game against Arkansas, and he did it again today.”
In three games against MSU, Ole Miss has allowed just one run in 10 1/3 innings of relief this season without using junior closer Brett Huber.
MSU (26-17, 9-11) turned to junior right-hander Kendall Graveman (3-3) but the SEC Pitcher of the Week struggled to keep the ball down in the first.
“I really felt like Kendall threw better than he got,” Cohen said. “He made the one poor pitch there, a changeup, to Snyder that left the ballpark. He didn’t have much power sink as he as. Those numbers of flyball outs is not who Kendall is. He pitched well enough to win this ballpark but we didn’t defend it well enough behind him.”
Matt Snyder capitalized on Graveman’s lack of sink for a two-run home run to left field. Of the 13 home runs Ole Miss has hit in conference play, Snyder has hit eight, giving him 39 in his career.
“In that first inning, (Graveman) wasn’t running it and sinking it as well as he should’ve (and) leaving the ball up a little bit,” MSU junior catcher Mitch Slauter said.
The victory marked Ole Miss’ seventh victory in Starkville in its past eight games at Dudy Noble Field.
The teams will close the series at 1:30 p.m. today. The Bulldogs are trying to become the first home team to win this rivalry series since 2007.
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