CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Clearly all Adam Frazier and Hunter Renfroe needed was to hear their names called in the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft.
In a 11-6 victory against No. 6 national seed University of Virginia on Saturday in game one of the NCAA Charlottesville Super Regional at Davenport Field, the Mississippi State University baseball team’s two premier offensive players had the best days of their college careers days after being selected in the professional draft.
“You wouldn’t be human if you’re 20 or 21 years old not sitting there with it in the back of your mind,” said MSU coach John Cohen, whose team improved to 47-18. “I know everybody came to Adam Frazier asking him, ‘Have you heard anything yet?’ ”
Frazier and Renfroe combined for 10 hits, six RBIs, and four runs scored against one of the top pitching staffs in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the nation. Frazier, who was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the sixth round on Friday afternoon, went 6-for-6 with two runs scored and three RBIs to join four other Bulldogs with the school record for hits in a game. The last MSU player to accomplish the feat was Burke Masters in a 1990 NCAA Starkville Regional game against Florida State University.
In his 167th career game at MSU, Frazier had more than four hits for the first time. His sixth hit, a single in the eighth inning, was his 100th of the season, which helped the Bishop, Ga., native one of only four players in school history to reach the century mark in hits in a season. Frazier passed Cohen and MLB All-Star Rafael Palmeiro on the single-season list Saturday. He is three hits shy of the MSU single-season record set by Brian Wiese in 1998.
“There were a couple of them that were lucky, but it was a pretty simple day of getting pitches to hit,” Frazier said. “I was fortunate enough to have the contact find open ground.”
Renfroe, who the San Diego Padres drafted with the 13th pick in the first round Thursday, got on base in his first five plate appearances and was 4-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. In batting practice before the game, Renfroe hit two balls deep over the left-field grandstands. The Crystal Springs native followed that up with his second four-hit performance. He credited the larger hitters’ eye for his performance.
“I think if we had that big huge wall in center in Starkville I think we would’ve hit better,” Renfroe joked as he looked at Cohen two seats to his right at the postgame conference table.
During the game, Cohen even mentioned on the ESPN2 broadcast how he felt strongly that Frazier, who is usually defined by his calm demeanor, needed to have the pressure of the MLB draft behind him to perform well in the Super Regional.
“I think all 16 coaches in this Super Regional round come to this weekend with that thought in mind,” Cohen said. “Again, I’d love to see the reaction of SEC football coaches that hey, we’re going to make the draft in December before your bowl game.”
Frazier, who wasn’t drafted out of Oconee County High School despite being a honorable mention Louisville Slugger All-American, found out the Pirates selected him following an indoor practice session and during the Bulldogs’ lunch at Davenport Field.
“I think any time you can get that stuff off your mind and that pressure off you you’re going to be more relaxed,” Frazier said. “I think that goes for everybody out there.”
Frazier and Renfroe were part of an offense that jumped all over five freshman pitchers for 20 hits, the most surrendered this season by the Cavaliers (50-11). Left-hander Brandon Waddell, the team’s Friday night starter in ACC play, allowed six hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings.
The first four members of MSU’s lineup (Frazier, Alex Detz, Renfroe, and Brett Pirtle) were 12-for-19 with seven runs scored and eight RBIs. The 20 hits are the most by a MSU team in the program’s 10th Super Regional game.
“It’s all about rhythm at the plate, and I think the whole club is hitting the ball well and taking really good swings,” Renfroe said. “You just have to make sure you’re looking at things up in the zone and not chasing pitches. Once you get good barrel, good things are going to happen.”
MSU will try to clinch its ninth trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., and first since 2007, at 6 tonight (ESPNU) in game two of the best-of-three series. If necessary, game three will be at 3 p.m. Monday.
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