OMAHA, Neb. — Tanner Allen trotted back to the dugout and was ready to grab his glove and hat after grounding into a double play to end the fifth inning Friday afternoon.
But the Mississippi State baseball team’s first baseman was called into a meeting before he could hit the field.
Jake Gautreau, MSU’s assistant coach and primary hitting coach, called his hitters into a huddle near the back wall of the dugout. A mass of bodies and the concrete awning over Gautreau shielded him from view. His message was simple.
“Continue to keep grinding in our approach,” junior Hunter Vansau said.
Gautreau talked to the Bulldogs in hopes of changing the team’s fortunes at the plate. While that didn’t happen in MSU’s 12-2 loss to Oregon State 12-2 Friday with just five hits to its name, Gautreau sees no reason why MSU should do anything differently Saturday in a game that will decide which team advances to the College World Series Championship Series, which starts at 6 p.m. Monday (ESPN).
“He does that a lot,” MSU freshman designated hitter Jordan Westburg said. “He does those meetings to re-group when we have a quick inning or struggle at the plate. It helps us calm down. It’s more of telling us we’re doing a great job, stick with it, and it’ll fall.
“It was a message of sticking with the approach and trusting it was going to happen. It didn’t happen today, but we put a lot of good swings on balls and hit a lot of balls far. It’s just baseball. I think we’re going to attack it tomorrow the same way we attacked it today.”
MSU (39-28) suffered its first loss in Omaha after winning its first two games at the 2018 event. The Bulldogs, who had nine hits Tuesday in a 12-2 victory against the North Carolina Tar Heels, managed only five Friday against starting pitcher Bryce Fehmel and Brandon Eisert. Fehmel allowed four of the hits and both runs in 3 2/3 innings before Eisert, a sophomore left-hander, allowed only one hit in 5 1/3 innings. Eisert walked one and struck out three in a 72-pitch outing that helped the Beavers conserve their bullpen.
Given the quality of contact throughout the game, MSU had every reason to believe things would eventually fall its way.
The contact was consistent, as MSU struck out only four times, and it started early. The Bulldogs also benefited from good fortune early, when Hunter Stovall’s double to center field bounced away from center fielder Preston Jones and allowed a run to score a run.
Unfortunately, MSU didn’t have much luck on nearly all of its subsequent hard contact.
In the second inning, all three Bulldogs struck balls well to center field only to find Jones’ glove. Third baseman Justin Foscue’s fly out came after a hard-hit ball down the left-field line that was foul by inches. MSU flew out 12 times and grounded out nine times.
Oregon State (52-11-1) took control in the bottom of the second. The Beavers batted around before they recorded an unproductive out. A leadoff double and single started the scoring before two hits, two walks, and a hit batter accounted for the five-run outburst.
Oregon State chased starting pitcher Jacob Billingsley (5-4) after 1 1/3 innings. Billingsley allowed six runs, all earned. Keegan James worked out of trouble in the second and lasted 3 2/3 innings. He allowed four hits and one run.
Stovall, who drove both in of MSU’s runs, was the only Bulldog with multiple hits. Center fielder Jake Mangum, Allen, and Foscue also had hits.
After a game like that, it is easy for the team to accept a message from Gautreau. Plus, they agree with him.
“I would almost say once a game,” Westburg said of Gautreau’s in-game dugout meetings. “It’s a constant reminder of being stubborn, be who we are as a club, don’t stray away from anything we’re doing and good things will happen.”
Said Vansau, “You could see the frustration during that time. It was to get our minds back on track, back in the right direction.”
Gautreau told his players not to change anything after the fifth inning. Even after four more innings of tough luck, his mind hadn’t changed. He told The Dispatch after the game the only thing that might need improvement is for the Bulldogs to have a calm mind-set at the plate because he said players “can try to do too much, which is very normal here in the College World Series.”
Westburg saw reasons for optimism down to the final out. He pointed to Foscue’s 10-pitch at-bat with one out in the ninth, in which he fouled six pitches off, as evidence of resolve.
“I like to think we’re always in the fight,” Westburg said.
MSU plans on being in the fight Saturday, and doing it the same way.
“We’ve been in this situation plenty of times this postseason and the kids have responded well,” Gautreau said. “We can’t sit here and dwell on it, worry about it, make it a lot bigger than it is.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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