PEARL — Houston Harding knew what was coming. So did Southern Mississippi leadoff man Gabe Montenegro. Even the beer vendors down the third base line who notched close to $10,000 in sales Wednesday night knew what was coming. It didn’t matter.
With a progressive windup and whip of his left arm, Harding fired another 73 mile per hour breaking ball that started at belt level and fell out the bottom. Montenegro tried to stay on top of it. A foolish endeavor. He swung right over the pitch and, with it, gave Harding the last of his nine strikeouts in No. 3 Mississippi State’s 4-1 win over Southern Miss (4-4) at Trustmark Park.
“(He) just gave us a great start,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said of Harding. “We haven’t had a great start yet, I don’t think, in the season and let us piece the game together the way we wanted to.”
Entering Wednesday’s contest, the Golden Eagles’ starting lineup had recorded extra base hits on 69 percent of its hits this season. Against Harding, they recorded just one.
Not a pitcher to overpower, the Tennessee native located with his upper-80s fastball and wiped out nearly every Southern Miss batter he saw with a devastating breaking ball and a dazzling changeup that danced in and around the zone all night. In all, Harding allowed just two hits in five innings of work, marking the longest start of any MSU pitcher this year.
Harding remains a relatively new commodity to the MSU (6-2) rotation. During his two years at Itawamba Community College, he led the team in starts, innings pitched and, of course, strikeouts in both years. Harding finished his final season in Fulton 10-0 with 90 strikeouts en route to third team National Junior College Athletic Association All-America honors.
A season ago, Harding looked the part of a dangerous long-reliever come Southeastern Conference play, had the season actually gotten there. Now in his second year with the program, he feels like an arm that can spell a hurting Bulldog rotation if needed.
In two starts this spring — including a last minute call against then-No. 10 TCU — Harding has allowed just three hits and two runs while striking out 13 over 8.1 innings pitched. He also tossed two innings of two-hit relief against Tulane on Saturday, earning himself the win.
Wednesday, Harding grinded through 12 and nine-pitch at bats against Reed Trimple and Charlie Fischer after recording just 30 pitches in his first two innings of work. But rather than wilt as his pitch count climbed, Harding first retired Trimble on a grounder to second, then fooled Fischer on a 3-2 pitch.
“His changeup is his best pitch,” Lemonis explained. “He’s really worked to develop the breaking ball, especially against the lefties. And I think that you saw it against the middle of their lineup. He had a couple great at bats there flipping that breaking ball in there and getting them off his fastball.”
With Harding setting the tone, junior reliever Preston Johnson followed in step in relief. Johnson, who appeared in his first game of the year Wednesday, conceded he was nervous in the bullpen and throughout his warmup. Looking into his mit for the first time on top of the bump, he reminded himself of Lemonis’ team slogan: “Let ’em know.”
“I was just like, ‘Preston, let ’em know you belong here,'” he recounted. “So that’s what I did.”
Striding into his motion, Johnson struck out the side in each of his two innings of relief, while allowing just a single hit. In all, he and Harding combined for 15 of MSU’s 20 strikeouts Wednesday night — a mark that broke a Southern Miss opponent record previously set by Ole Miss in 1990.
As Harding and Johnson fooled the Southern Miss lineup for the bulk of the night, hot-hitting catcher Logan Tanner shouldered MSU’s offensive load. Tanner finished his night 2-for-4 from the dish including RBI singles in the first and fifth inning.
Battery mate Tanner Allen also added to his recent run at the dish, recording an RBI single in the fifth inning and marking the fourth-straight game he’s brought in at least one run.
Through Wednesday, MSU had shown a propensity for sloppy play in the field. But on a night in which its pitchers were nearly unhittable and the Bulldogs notched their 11th consecutive win over in-state schools, MSU turned in perhaps its most complete defensive performance of the year against a team Lemonis estimates will be in a regional squad come NCAA tournament time.
“We are what we showed tonight,” he said. “We have that ability where, if we play great defense, we’re going to pitch like that. We’ve got a chance to (make it) really hard to score against us.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
