STARKVILLE — Southeastern Conference sweeps have been elusive for the Mississippi State baseball team.
In the first three weekends, MSU was on the verge of sweeping at Vanderbilt and sweeping Georgia and Ole Miss at home. But each time the Bulldogs couldn’t close the deal. After taking an early lead at LSU in game three April 24, MSU came unraveled and took a loss to derail the sweep.
But the Bulldogs put their woes behind them to take their first conference sweep. No. 3 MSU did just enough to beat Missouri 3-1 Saturday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field to finish off the three-game sweep.
“That third day has all been about us throwing enough strikes,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “That’s what we did (Saturday). If we throw enough strikes, we’re going to play good defense and we’re going to put some good swings on the baseball.”
The Bulldogs (33-14-1, 15-9 SEC) won 4-3 Friday night behind a solid performance from Austin Sexton on the mound and were aided by three Tiger errors. Sexton threw eight-plus innings and allowed four hits. He walked one and struck out eight. The Bulldogs scored two unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings and got two sacrifice fly outs from Ryan Gridley and John Holland in the eighth.
The Bulldogs used three pitchers Saturday and all three gave everything they had. Leading 1-0 in the top of the fifth, junior left-handed pitcher Daniel Brown took over for starter Konnor Pilkington with runners on first and second and no outs. Johnny Balsamo laid down a sacrifice bunt and Brown fielded it, but he bobbled it as he looked to third to get the lead runner. He got Conner Brumfield to hit one sharply to Nathaniel Lowe at first base who threw home to get lead runner Brian Sharp for the first out. He got Jake Ring to line out to Gridley at shortstop for the second out.
It looked like Brown was going to get out of the bases loaded jam when he induced a ground ball from Ryan Howard, but second baseman Holland booted it, allowing a run to score to tie the game. But the Bulldogs caught Balsamo in a run down for the final out.
Brown (3-2) threw four innings and allowed no runs on three hits. He didn’t issue a walk and struck out three.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve talked about it a lot, but we all kind of know that we need to sweep the series and get the job done,” Brown said. “Now it’s more like, ‘Hey, we’re going to win this game like it’s the first game of the series.’ I think that’s helped us and we’ve played a lot better on Sundays.”
Brown got a lift from his defense as left fielder Reid Humphreys and Gridley combined to throw the potential tying run out at the plate in the sixth. Brown allowed a one-out single to Brett Bond and then a double to Shane Benes. Humphreys picked up Benes’ hit in the left field corner and threw to cutoff man Gridley who turned and threw home to Jack Kruger in time for him to tag out Bond. After the great defensive play, Brown retired the final seven batters he faced.
“Right when that happened, I just kind of had this new energy to go out and shut it down,” Brown said.
Humphreys came on to pitch the ninth and struck out the side to pick up his sixth save. Cohen said Humphreys came to him and pitching coach Wes Johnson in the middle of the game and said his arm was feeling as good as it ever had and he wanted to pitch.
Johnson took Humphreys down to the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth and Johnson saw “electric” stuff from Humphreys.
Humphreys struck out Bond for the first out and that’s when the bullpen knew the sweep was at hand.
“Right when he got the first guy we were like, ‘Yeah, it’s over. He’s got it in the tank,'” Brown said.
Pilkington threw four-plus innings and allowed one run (unearned) on five hits. He struck out for and issued one walk.
The Tigers (24-25, 7-17) had eight hits, with Bond and Benes each having two.
Tied at 1 in the bottom of the fifth, the Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead with an RBI single from Brent Rooker. With runners on the corners and two outs, Rooker took the 1-2 offering from Michael Plassmeyer (4-5) and hit it sharply into center field to score Nathaniel Lowe from third. Humphreys gave the Bulldogs an insurance run with an RBI single in the seventh.
Like in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single to left field by Gavin Collins to score Kruger, who reached on an infield single, from second.
The Bulldogs had 13 hits, paced by Collins and Kruger’s three hits a piece. Lowe and Rooker each had two.
“We had the same mental approach every day, which was this game is the most important game we’re going to play all year,” Collins said. “That’s how we’re going to play the rest of them.”
The seven series wins are tied for most under Cohen (seven in 2014).
MSU plays at Troy 6 p.m. Wednesday before a three-game series at Auburn led by former pitching coach Butch Thompson.
With the sweep the Bulldogs more than likely locked up a host spot in the NCAA tournament, but they want more. MSU has a chance to be a national seed and the sweep helps that cause.
“They all know what’s at stake,” Cohen said.
“It’s not necessarily a sweep, it’s an SEC win. You keep putting stuff on your resume. Everyone of these wins pads your resume. We have goals as a group and most of those goals are still intact.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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