STARKVILLE — There is an alternate reality somewhere out there in the college baseball universe where Mississippi State baseball doesn’t lose 11-6 to No. 6 Arkansas Sunday afternoon.
A universe, where the Bulldogs aren’t once again looking up at the rest of the Southeastern Conference. MSU head coach Chris Lemonis believes it.
Lemonis, sitting in the bowels of Dudy Noble Field following MSU’s fourth sweeping in league play this season, felt his team could have easily, not only won Sunday’s affair, but also this weekend’s series against the Razorbacks.
“I thought we were in that game today,” Lemonis said. “Yesterday, no. We fell behind early. (Landon) Gartman came out early, and I didn’t think we were in that game. But Friday and today, we are in that. They (Arkansas) are not a deep bullpen team, but we let them separate in these innings and it is just tough.”
That is the reality that this MSU baseball team (24-23 overall) is living. Standings and scorecards rarely tell lies in baseball, and as close as Lemonis or his team may have felt they were to Arkansas, or the Tennessee’s, Vanderbilt’s and Kentucky’s that have also swept the Bulldogs this year, the gap feels as wide as ever.
“We don’t make enough pitches,” Lemonis said. “We don’t make enough plays….You watch on the flipside, they make them.”
Lemonis acknowledged there have been a multitude of issues with his team this season (mainly on the mound). But when it all gets boiled down, MSU simply hasn’t been able to get out of its own way in key moments.
Multiple collisions in the outfield in Saturday’s game, a 14-2 run-rule loss. Errant steal attempts in Friday’s game, a 6-2 loss, taking runs off the board.
And on Sunday, it was the inability to get off the field with two outs.
“…All 11 runs scored with two outs,” Lemonis said. “ We had chances to get off the field and were in a lot of positive counts where we were trying to waste a pitch and end up throwing a pitch for them to hit,” Lemonis said. “Two of the innings where they scored (multiple runs) we had double play balls to get off the field and we didn’t make them.”
Jurrangelo Cijntje, Sunday’s starter, was one out away from getting out of the third inning before he hit a batter, allowed an RBI single and a two-run homer by Brady Slavens as MSU found itself down 3-0.
Nate Dohm, who made his first appearance in relief since getting injured two weekends ago at Auburn, was one out away from stranding two runners in the fifth inning before walking a batter and allowing a grand slam to Kendall Diggs the next at-bat, to put the Razorbacks up 10-4.
“It’s tough when you lose,” said Hunter Hines, who hit a two-run homer to briefly tie Sunday’s game at three. “I feel like we all know we have good players and I feel like we are trying to play as a team. Things just aren’t going our way right now.”
This weekend was a microcosm to MSU’s entire season.
Nobody knows that more than Lemonis, who let go of fifth-year pitching coach Scott Foxhall earlier in the week in hopes of creating a spark. But this late in the season, there isn’t a quick-fix adhesive that will patch up MSU’s cracks.
Maybe another winless series will wake some guys up. It is only a road trip against No. 1 LSU that awaits next weekend.
“At least for now, for tomorrow, the future, I am going to come in everyday and coach (them) as hard as I can and make (them) better players,” Lemonis said. “Hopefully during this they can become better players and have a learning experience. It is tough going through something like this at a place like this, where expectations are so high. We understand the expectations but it is getting these kids to play hard, show up and practice hard and become better players. That is our message.”
Even after seven straight SEC losses, MSU still has a postseason to play for. Missouri (7-17) sits only one game ahead of the Bulldogs (and Rebels) for the final spot in the SEC Tournament in Hoover.
Closing that gap is the only path to getting there.
“It’s players, coaches, hard work and it is getting it back,” Lemonis said “It has been a tough year and a half and we got to get it back.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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