STARKVILLE — Andy Cannizaro would certainly prefer to not be without second baseman Hunter Stovall for an extended period of time, given he’s already had to do it once.
Luckily for him, a backup plan emerged. Its name is Harrison Bragg.
With Stovall out of the Saturday doubleheader against Auburn (32-14, 14-7 Southeastern Conference) with a hand injury, Cannizaro’s answer was to move third baseman Luke Alexander to second and insert Bragg at third. Bragg responded with four hits in eight at-bats, driving in three runs, hitting a home run and playing an error-free third base.
“He brings you an opportunity to run another ball out of the ballpark to left field,” Cannizaro, MSU’s coach, said of Bragg. “His at-bats are getting better and better, he’s just grown up a lot in the last month or two on the field.
“I don’t think he’ll get three hits every day, but if he wants to, that’s awesome.”
Playing time was inconsistent for Bragg until the last two SEC series, in which he played in all three games against Alabama before the Auburn doubleheader.
“I think I started getting comfortable with that after the Alabama series. The crowd went away: it’s just a game, it’s just 90 feet, everything was normal,” Bragg said. “You play this game every day long enough, as soon as you get out there you can flip a switch and get back into it. It may take a couple of reps, but it should be fine.”
Starting pitching woes
After a resurgent start from Konnor Pilkington in Friday’s win, Saturday was a day to forget for MSU starting pitchers.
Cole Gordon and Jacob Billingsley, in their second weekend of being named the Saturday and Sunday starters in advance of the weekend, combined to throw just six innings, each going three. MSU had to use four relievers behind each of them: in the first game, Peyton Plumlee and Jacob Barton both threw 2 1/3 innings and Denver McQuary did it in the second game, throwing three innings just days after throwing more than 100 pitches in his Tuesday start.
“When you play 18 innings in a day, you need to get more than six innings out of your starting pitching. Those guys have been outstanding over the last couple of weeks and they just didn’t get the job done today,” Cannizaro said, “but by no means have we lost confidence in those guys. They’re going to be right back out there and I look forward to getting the ball back in those guys’ hands against Texas A&M next week.”
Different schedule
For the first time since the turnover from February to March, MSU will go from weekend series to weekend series without a midweek game in between. It doubles as one of the longest breaks of the season for the Bulldogs with no games in between Saturday’s doubleheader and the series opener in College Station, Texas, on Thursday.
When addressing differences in this week’s schedule without a midweek game, Cannizaro pointed to a bigger factor: final exams.
Cannizaro said the team will practice Monday and Tuesday before leaving Wednesday while giving players time to have a, “strong finish in the classroom.”
Injury update
Cannizaro said second baseman Hunter Stovall suffered a fracture in his hand in Friday’s series opener, but was hesitant to elaborate beyond that. Cannizaro said Stovall will see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday to get more information and potentially a timetable for his return.
Left fielder Cody Brown was seen hobbling down the first base line in his ninth-inning flyout of the second game, which Cannizaro attributed to cramps. Cannizaro added Cole Gordon, the starting pitcher for the first game on Saturday, also had cramps and got intravenous (IV) treatment after he exited the game.
“It’s getting to be that time of year where guys have to do a great job of taking care of their bodies, hydrating and resting up, because it’s going to be hot, it’s going to be humid every day for the rest of the season,” Cannizaro said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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