HOOVER, Ala. — Gavin Collins decided to simplify his approach at the plate.
Early in the season, the Mississippi State junior third baseman was using a leg kick as a timing mechanism, but he wasn’t getting the results he wanted, so he changed things up.
“I got with a couple of coaches and we decided we needed to tone it down a little bit and just go back to a more simple approach and go from there,” Collins said. “It’s really been helping.”
Collins went 4-for-4 with a solo home run and extended his hitting streak to 18 games in the top-seeded and No. 2 Mississippi State baseball team’s 4-1 victory against Alabama 4-1 on Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Collins extended his hitting streak with a single in the first inning that scored Jake Mangum from first. He hit a solo home run down the left-field line in the fourth and had singles in the sixth and eighth.
MSU coach John Cohen preaches being simple at the plate. He pointed out how that has helped Mangum, a freshman, lead the SEC with a .430 batting average.
Cohen wasn’t surprised to see Collins find his comfort zone against Alabama.
“You can just tell, you feel it when he’s in that kind of rhythm,” Cohen said.
Collins is batting .408 (29-for-71) with five doubles, one triple, three home runs, and 10 RBIs in the hitting streak.
Making a case
Alabama entered the 12-team SEC tournament on the bubble for the NCAA tournament.
A 5-2 victory against Kentucky on Tuesday likely kept Alabama’s hopes of playing in a regional alive. Alabama, which has two wins against Maryland, a win against Notre Dame, and a win against Houston, entered the game against MSU with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 55.
“I feel like our resume is one that would be one to be enough to get us in a regional,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “I think we should be in, I think we’re deserving to be in, and I think we’ve got a team that can be really dangerous.”
Alabama and Kentucky went 15-15 in the regular season in the SEC. MSU coach John Cohen can’t imagine Alabama isn’t one of the nation’s top 64 teams.
“They have 16 wins in the Southeastern Conference. To me, that’s pretty strong,” Cohen said.
Ninth-seeded Alabama will have another opportunity to bolster its resume when it takes on No. 4 and fourth-seeded Florida at approximately 1 p.m. today (SEC Network).
Large crowd
The SEC announced an attendance of 13,448 for the second session.
With MSU playing Alabama and Florida taking on LSU, the fans didn’t disappoint, as overflow parking was used in the outfield.
It is the largest SEC tournament crowd since 2003, and fourth largest all-time.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.