STARKVILLE — Back in February, Mississippi State baseball coach Andy Cannizaro could look forward to Southeastern Conference play as a far away object, one which gave him plenty of time to decide bullpen roles.
In two days, his self-imposed deadline will come.
MSU (12-6) finished its non-conference schedule with an 11-8 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The next action is on the road against Arkansas, where MSU’s struggling bullpen will need more to hold down the conference leader in home runs.
“I feel really good about our back end right now when you look at a guy like Spencer Price, Riley Self, when you look at putting Graham Ashcraft back there, I really like those three guys a lot as our last three guys,” Cannizaro said. “We have to find a way to be able to get the ball from our starters to those three guys.”
Self was unavailable over the weekend with muscle inflammation in his arm, Cannizaro said, but he added a Monday bullpen session went well and he expects Self to be available at Arkansas.
As injuries have struck the MSU pitching staff, it may have to turn to its everyday center fielder, Jake Mangum, for more on the mound. He started the win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, pitching three perfect innings just days after his first appearance of the season, in which he earned a save.
“Jake Mangum’s certainly going to be in the mix for that kind of role — that’s why I wanted to get him out of the game early,” Cannizaro said, “so we could have him available for us at Arkansas.”
Of the aforementioned trio that has earned Cannizaro’s confidence, the one apparently settled into the closer role is sophomore Spencer Price, who earned his fourth save of the season Tuesday in nine appearances. He has pitched 11 1/3 innings with a 2.38 earned run average allowing just six hits over those innings.
Among the best-performing candidates to get MSU to those three is freshman Denver McQuary, who has pitched four times, going 7 1/3 innings while allowing five hits and a 2.45 ERA. Other candidates — such as junior Trey Jolly, sophomore Ryan Cyr and junior Andrew Mahoney — all have ERAs over 5.00. Cannizaro acknowledges certain struggles, but will not hesitate to use them since injuries have forced a lack of depth that gives him no other option.
“Pitching the name of the game, guys; if you have it, you’re going to do really well. We’re just trying to mix and match and do what we can to extend guys,” Cannizaro said. “Some guys aren’t doing as well as they would like to be, but they’re going to keep getting chances because we don’t have a full list of arms right now, so the guys that we have healthy are going to continue going to the mound.”
Cannizaro did identify Jacob Barton as the long relief pitcher, stretching out to 11 1/3 innings in his five appearances with a 3.18 ERA.
Skelton’s case for starter
With senior catcher Josh Lovelady unavailable due to injury since Friday, freshman Dustin Skelton caught five games in five days. He went 6-for-17 at the plate in those five games, walking twice for a .470 on-base percentage and driving in five runs. Skelton entered the stretch with a .125 batting average that is now up to .196.
Cannizaro agreed that Skelton made a case for the everyday starting job in that time, but expect Lovelady to be healthy in time for the Arkansas series so a normal rotation can resume.
“Both of those guys are going to play,” Cannizaro said. “My plan would be to split the weekends 50-50, and Lovelady does a tremendous job at the end of a game controlling the staff and handling everything that’s going on. Skelton’s a young player that we’d love to ease into it and bring along slowly, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that. It’s definitely a trial by fire for him.”
New Hope alum, MSU transfer in town
South Alabama brought a pair of players with connections to the area to Starkville last weekend.
The Jaguars’ 4-hole hitter, Wells Davis, played in high school at New Hope. Davis had one hit on the weekend, getting it off of MSU ace Konnor Pilkington on Friday; he also drove in a run in a win over Columbia. Davis left the weekend with a .273 batting average (15-55) for the season with a .397 on-base percentage and slugging .400. MSU makes a return trip to South Alabama for a midweek game on April 18.
South Alabama also brought a MSU transfer in its bullpen, junior Avery Geyer. Geyer pitched against Mississippi State on Sunday and was the losing pitcher, walking one batter and allowing a base hit on the other batter he faced to give up two earned runs.
It was Geyer’s first appearance at Dudy Noble Field, having redshirted in his one season with MSU before transferring. He redshirted the 2014 season, then transferred to Northwest Florida State Junior College where he helped pitch the Raiders to the JUCO World Series before ending up with the Jaguars.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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