STARKVILLE — Mississippi State hasn’t had a Friday night like this one in six weeks. The outlier: Konnor Pilkington bowing out before the seventh inning.
MSU’s bullpen — with its 5.93 earned run average in the eighth and ninth innings — took over after 5 1/3 innings from Pilkington and finished the game in scoreless fashion, preserving a 5-4 win over Tennessee. The win gave MSU its first Southeastern Conference win of the season, avoiding the team’s first 0-4 start to SEC play since 1995.
Junior Jacob Barton was the first one in, entering the game with runners on first and one out. He struck out the two batters he faced to end the inning, then pitched a scoreless seventh.
“When the game’s on the line, we have some guys that really can come in and do something good,” Barton said. “We are young, I think we have guys that can come in and give us a chance to win.”
Riley Self pitched a scoreless eighth before Spencer Price recorded his fifth save of the season with a perfect top of the ninth, two of the three outs recorded by strikeout. MSU coach Andy Cannizaro said that progression — Self and Price closing out the game, with a relief in between them and the starter if necessary — is, “kind of how we envision it.”
The bullpen’s collective time on the mound was relatively stress-free once Barton got MSU out of the sixth. Self allowed a leadoff single, but freshman catcher Dustin Skelton, freshly subbed into the game, threw him out trying to steal second.
Barton relished his opportunity to get MSU out of the jam, and used his notes from Pilkington’s start to bolster his effectiveness.
“A lot of fastballs and sinkers. A couple of sliders here and there, but mostly just attacking them with fastballs,” he said. “Fastballs in, I feel like Konnor established that early, and then curveballs down with two strikes when he got ahead to get guys to swing over the top. They were kind of aggressive, so we tried to take advantage of that.”
Pilkington was working with quick run support on right fielder Elijah MacNamee’s two-run home run in the first inning. MacNamee did it from the 4-hole, a new development after Cannizaro made some lineup changes last weekend.
Tennessee retook the lead in chasing Pilkington out of his start, but MSU regained it with a three-run seventh on Tanner Poole’s RBI single and Brent Rooker’s two-RBI double. The two RBIs keep Rooker in the conference lead with 34; he entered Saturday’s game, delayed by rain, leading the conference in doubles, steals and total bases, as well.
The other notable break in trend was MSU winning a close game, having lost the last three games it’s played decided by two or fewer runs.
“We kept talking about the things we needed to do to win these close, one-run ball games. It was the pitching part of it, it was the offensive execution, it was turning double plays, it was not leaving anything out on the field,” Cannizaro said. “I thought our guys did an outstanding job of it tonight.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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