STARKVILLE — Brent Rooker wanted to save Spencer Price’s arm.
Price, the closer for Mississippi State’s baseball team, already had thrown 2 1/3 innings Wednesday when Rooker stepped to the plate in the 10th inning. If Rooker didn’t help Jake Mangum score from first base, Price would have to go back to the mound to make his longest appearance of the season.
Rooker ended Price’s night with a two-run home run to center field, his second of the game, to lift No. 22 MSU to a 9-7 victory against Florida International. The win earned MSU (20-11) a split of the two-game series prior to a three-game Southeastern Conference series against No. 13 Kentucky (21-9, 7-2 SEC). Game 1 of that series will be at 6 p.m. Friday (SEC Network+).
“I think he’s the best hitter in America,” MSU coach Andy Cannizaro said of Rooker. “It’s not just right-handed power. It’s a complete hitter. He’s seeing spin really well, he’s using the whole field, he’s able to do real damage on mistakes that are out over the plate.”
Rooker (3-for-4, three runs, five RBIs) said he hit a breaking ball for the game-winning home run. Ahead in the count 2-1 after seeing three fastballs, Rooker said he doubted pitcher Cain Spangler would throw fastball, so he sat on a breaking pitch.
Price said he was ready to pitch another inning if he needed to. Beyond the fact of stretching Price further than he has all season, Cannizaro was only going to stick with Price for one more inning.
“We were out of bullets,” Cannizaro said. “It was either Spencer Price was going to go back out on the mound for one inning, and after that I have absolutely no idea. It was just going to be somebody’s knuckleball. I’m really glad Rooker won it when he did because we were officially out of bullets.”
The win also gave MSU the positive note it needed after an 8-3 loss to FIU (17-11) on Tuesday.
Cannizaro and players said a hangover effect plagued the team Tuesday in its first action after sweeping four road games last week, including three against Ole Miss in Oxford. The week extended MSU’s winning streak to seven games and helped the Bulldogs move into the Baseball America Top 25 and into the top half of the SEC standings.
“Our guys just didn’t have it (Tuesday night) in terms of that energy and focus we needed, but (Wednesday) was a different story,” Cannizaro said. “I felt like our guys really showed up with a purpose that we were going to come out here and play really well, put together a complete game, and we did that.”
MSU allowed six runs in the top of the third and trailed 6-1. The Bulldogs responded with two runs in the bottom of the third before Rooker’s first home run, a two-run shot, in the fourth cut the deficit to one.
Denver McQuary came on in relief of Cole Gordon and Jacob Barton to throw three innings of scoreless relief. FIU scored a run in the eighth in between McQuary’s exit and Price’s arrival, but MSU scored on a bases-loaded walk and on a passed ball in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game.
Rooker said he was proud of how the team bounced back from the five-run deficit. Hunter Vansau was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, Luke Alexander had two hits and scored a run, and Ryan Gridley had a hit and scored two runs.
“This was a huge momentum builder for our team,” Rooker said, “and that’s big going into a weekend where we’re going to get to play in front of 12,000, 15,000 people against a really good Kentucky team.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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