STARKVILLE — Andy Cannizaro sees a lot of his own team in Oregon.
MSU’s first-year baseball coach, in the midst of installing a more aggressive offensive approach both at the plate and on the base paths, is taking his team on the road to face a similarly minded Oregon team for a three-game series, beginning Friday night. It is MSU’s last games away from Dudy Noble Field until opening up Southeastern Conference play at Arkansas.
“They’re your traditional West Coast baseball team: they’re going to bunt, they’re going to run, they’re going to put pressure on the defense, they’re going to do all of those things to create runs,” Cannizaro said. “Obviously it will be a tremendous challenge for us in the infield, it will be a tremendous challenge for us on the mound and behind the plate.”
Sophomore starting pitcher Peyton Plumlee feels particularly prepared for that test given some of the similarities to MSU’s style of play, and pitching against it in frequent intrasquad scrimmages in the preseason.
“We work a lot on getting off the mound, being where you’re supposed to be on trying to make plays on bunts,” Plumlee said.
Oregon is 4-3 with two double-digit run games already to its credit, scoring 13 in a win over Fresno State and 11 in a win over UC Irvine in last weekend’s Tony Gwynn Classic.
“It’s going to be a extremely competitive series, it’s going to be an opportunity for us to go on the road and see what we’re made of,” Cannizaro said.
Another challenge is the sheer distance between Starkville and Eugene, Oregon: roughly 2,500 miles, by far the longest trip on MSU’s regular season schedule.
“I’m excited. I don’t think I’ve ever traveled this far to play a baseball game,” Plumlee said. “I think everybody’s looking forward to it and ready to play ball.
“We had a couple of conversations with our strength coach (Tuesday) about staying hydrated because the plane will dehydrate you, and it’s different throwing getting off of a plane instead of a bus.”
Plumlee is part of a starting rotation that has yet to be set in its entirety: Konnor Pilkington will start Friday and Plumlee will follow on Saturday, but MSU had not announced who will start the Sunday game on the mound as of Thursday morning.
In the first two weekends of the season, Graham Ashcraft and Ryan Cyr filled the other two starting spots. Cannizaro mentioned the possibility of Ashcraft coming out of the bullpen on Friday or Saturday if MSU needed innings from him to secure a win.
The series is the second leg of a home-and-home between the two programs after MSU swept Oregon at Dudy Noble Field last season by scores of 10-4, 9-3 and 5-2. Despite losing the two midweek games that followed in between that series and the SEC opener, center fielder Jake Mangum remembers last year’s Oregon series as one that kickstarted last year’s team and hopes for more of the same.
“Oregon’s a big-name team, they have a great baseball program,” Mangum said. “A lot of guys got hot that weekend. Getting that sweep last year kind of got us rolling.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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