ATLANTA — Pitching. Defense. Timely hits.
The formula had escaped Mississippi State”s baseball team in the past two weeks, when it dropped four of five games, sweated out the final day of the regular season for a Southeastern Conference tournament berth and went 0-2 in Hoover.
Friday, the Bulldogs returned to its blueprint in its biggest game of the season, toppling rival Southern Mississippi 3-0 in a NCAA tournament regional game in Atlanta.
Mississippi State pitcher Luis Pollorena threw 118 pitches — the most of his career — in his fourth start of the season. He tossed six innings, struck out three and walked three for the win.
Caleb Reed earned his 12th save of the season, pitching the last three innings and striking out four.
“It felt just like old times, when both of were coming out of the pen,” Pollorena said. “When he came in, I thought, ”we got this one in the bag.””
The Bulldogs played error-free, aided by a strong performance from shortstop Jonathan Ogden, who started a double-play in the sixth with a runner in scoring position and dived to prevent a single in the second.
Nick Vickerson had an RBI double that brought in a runner from first in the first inning, and substitute Brent Brownlee had a two-RBI single that gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 advantage in the sixth.
“You start off everyday by defending the field,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “Our ballpark at home dictates that; our personnel dictates that. We”ve got to play defense and pitch first, then find a way to score second.”
No. 3 seed MSU ( 35-23) will face the winner of Georgia Tech-Austin Peay at 6 p.m. (CDT) Saturday.
No. 2 Southern Miss (39-18) will face the loser of Georgia Tech-Austin Peay at 2 p.m.
Pollorena”s start saw him ring up 50 pitches and allow three base-runners in the first two innings. He missed a few pitches on each side of the plate, but according to Cohen his misses weren”t by much. The strike zone was tight, but Pollorena rebounded from his misses by coming back and immediately attacking the zone, Cohen said.
“When you have big misses you don”t engage the hitter and you don”t engage the umpire, either,” Cohen said.
Pollorena, sensing his team couldn”t afford another long inning in the 94-degree heat, had an eight-pitch third in which he got three ground-outs. Pollorena hit stride after that, facing just four batters in two innings and five in another.
“It helps you out defensively because you”re always on your toes,” Vickerson said of the quick innings. “It gives you a little more range at times. It makes everybody really want to work hard for him out there when he”s working hard out there.”
The Golden Eagles” scoreless streak extended to 25 innings in the loss. They left 10 runners stranded and saw leading hitter and Ferriss Trophy winner Tyler Koelling, who played his first game since injuring his hamstring on May 21, go 0-for-3.
Southern Mississippi has lost seven of its last nine and has been held to two runs or less five times in that span.
It faces elimination Saturday.
For a team with six players who have 30 or more RBIs and six starters batting over .300, the offensive woes have coach Scott Berry and players puzzled.
“We were our own enemy on the base paths,” Berry said. “We”ve got to play better baseball than what we did today. Against their starter, we got him up to 118 pitches in the sixth inning but we leave 10 on and have some base-running mistakes that just killed us.
Berry lamented a fourth-inning bomb from Mark Ellis that got caught in the wind and found Brownlee”s glove instead of the outside of the left field fence.
“I thought that one might go,” Berry said. “The little things we work on day in and day out and you don”t execute, concentrate and focus, those are huge momentum swings for Mississippi State. You can”t do that, particularly this time of year, but also when your offense is struggling like that.”
The dismal day at the plate was especially discouraging consider the start the Golden Eagles got from starting pitcher Todd McInnis, who pitched his second straight complete game. The senior gave up three earned runs on seven hits and struck out six. He walked two.
“Coming in, I knew this was my last guaranteed start,” McInnis said. “I just went out there and competed best I could. That”s what I”ve done my whole career. You don”t like the outcome, but it”s baseball, you”re not gonna win every game.”
McInnis” only mistake was giving up the two-RBI double to Brownlee, who anticipated McInnis would test him with a slider away after getting him to swing at it on the first pitch.
Brownlee didn”t start the game but entered in the fourth after Trey Johnson struck out for the second time. Cohen went with Johnson because of his power in a smaller park but took him out when he noticed his swing wasn”t in-tune.
“It”s kind of funny how the game finds you,” Brownlee said. “I knew he wasn”t going to come in, I felt like he”d been going away to righties the whole time. I swung at the slider the very first pitch, and I felt like he”d come back to it and he left it up and I was able to put it the other way.”
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