TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Cole Gordon was a piece of a disaster less than 60 hours prior to his trot to the bullpen Saturday night, staring down the same team that was his unraveling then.
Gordon pitched like a man with no memory of it.
Mississippi State’s junior relief pitcher faced three batters in Oklahoma’s nine-run seventh inning from Friday, the loss that sent MSU (34-26) into elimination games for the remainder of the Tallahassee Regional. His next crack at the Sooners (38-24) saw him shut them down for six innings, keeping them to seven hits and four runs as MSU beat them 13-5. The win, after a 9-8 win over Samford earlier in the day, forced a winner-take-all match between MSU and Oklahoma at noon today (ESPN2).
“I didn’t think about Friday at all,” Gordon said. “Throughout the game I was able to throw my fastball wherever I wanted to.”
Another big factor: the score. Gordon’s appearance Friday came in a tight game with the tying run already on the base paths; on Sunday, he took the mound mere minutes after MSU put eight runs up in the third inning.
“When you pitch with a lead, your breaking ball gets better and your fastball gets better. I learned from Augie Garrido,” Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson said, referencing the late great Texas coach.
Gordon’s heroics did more than secure a win: it put MSU in great position to do it again tomorrow. His eating six innings with 112 pitches — hours after Jacob Billingsley worked through seven innings in the first game — gave most of a depleted MSU bullpen an extra day of rest for a winner-take-all game.
“From where we were after the first nine innings here, to see where we are and what we have available, I’d agree with that. I’d say we’re in pretty good shape relatively speaking,” MSU interim coach Gary Henderson said.
McQuary’s unusual turn
Denver McQuary entered a game at 2:42 p.m. with every intention of starting another game happening a few hours later.
When Billingsley’s start ended after a solo home run to start the seventh inning, it was still more likely than not that MSU was going to win that game, forcing an additional elimination game that Henderson wanted McQuary to start. Still, Henderson turned to McQuary to get two outs in the first game, throwing 16 pitches, before McQuary’s start against Oklahoma.
McQuary ultimately threw three innings in that evening start against the Sooners, allowing just one run on five hits and three walks.
Samford showed strong
Samford coach Casey Dunn had just watched a senior reliever throw 3 1/3 innings of relief with no earned run against a Southeastern Conference lineup. He had just watched sophomore catcher Anthony Mulrine tally two hits, one of them his eighth home run of the season.
He had also just watched his 14th season at the helm of the program come to an end.
“I don’t know that there’s a great way to go out on a loss, but this is as close as it comes,” Dunn said.
Dunn’s Bulldogs may have been the second team out of the Tallahassee Regional, but their trip was a memorable one. They helped knock the hosting Florida State squad out of the tournament after the minimum two games before playing tight games against the two teams trying to win the regional, MSU and Oklahoma.
The presence of the program at this stage, making its first regional appearance since 2012, was victory enough; the way it performed on said stage was something Dunn was more proud of than any resulting record could inspire.
“The confidence, the resiliency these guys have and playing three truly historic programs,” Dunn said. “We got to play three truly historic programs and we battled them to the end.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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