STARKVILLE — Two days after Mississippi State used six pitchers, allowed 16 hits and blew a four-run lead over the final two innings of a loss to Austin Peay, the Bulldogs needed length from their starting pitcher on Friday.
Nate Dohm’s effort against Georgia Southern — 10 strikeouts and just one walk over 6.2 innings of four-hit shutout ball — was just what the doctor ordered in MSU’s 5-1 victory.
“Tonight just came from the work I was putting in this week with (pitching coach Justin Parker), and the emphasis of having a little bit better direction toward the plate,” Dohm said. “(I’ll) just keep building off of that and keep learning and getting better every day.”
The junior right-hander was locked in from the first pitch, using his mid-90s fastball to get most of his punchouts. No Eagles baserunner even reached third against him, and in each of his first six innings, Dohm retired the first two batters he faced. After allowing a leadoff single in the seventh, he engaged in an eight-pitch battle with Sean White before getting the Georgia Southern catcher to bounce into a double play.
The Bulldogs (3-3) wasted Amani Larry’s leadoff double in the first inning but broke through against Eagles starter Thomas Higgins in the second. Logan Kohler, back in the starting lineup after injuring his shoulder on Opening Day, led off with a single and moved to third on Connor Hujsak’s double off the right-field wall. After catcher Johnny Long was hit by a pitch to load the bases, freshman shortstop Dylan Cupp’s single through the left side drove in two runs.
“It’s good to see (Cupp) relax a little bit,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “He’s a special player. You see it defensively, but he’s got a real chance to hit, so you’ll see a little bit more of that as time comes.”
MSU had chances in nearly every inning to extend the lead, but finished the game just 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Dohm, though, made sure those early runs stood up by carving through the Eagles’ lineup, and he lobbied unsuccessfully to stay in the game upon being pulled with two outs in the seventh.
Gavin Black entered in relief and got ahead of Jonathan Jaime with an 0-2 count, but he then hung a slider that Jamie yanked well over the right-field fence, and suddenly Georgia Southern (1-4) had made it a one-run game. Black bounced back to strike out the next batter, then picked up two more strikeouts in a scoreless eighth.
“He threw the guy a cookie there, hung a breaking ball,” Lemonis said. “But he’s pitching really well. It’s a really good slider. That’s why we call it there.”
The Bulldogs added three big insurance runs over their final two innings at the plate, responding to the Eagles’ run in the seventh when Hunter Hines drew a leadoff walk, went all the way to third on Kohler’s third single of the game and scored on a wild pitch. David Mershon, making his season debut after returning from an injury, hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth to bring home Long, and Dakota Jordan brought in one more with a double down the left-field line.
Kohler and Mershon give MSU more left-handed options in the lineup along with Hines and allow the Bulldogs to play the percentages and pick more favorable matchups.
“It helps when you have so many righties in your lineup and then you don’t have as much depth at the end of your lineup the last couple days,” Lemonis said. “They’re just gritty, hard-nosed ballplayers. They bring a lot to the table when they play.”
Brooks Auger finished off the victory with a perfect ninth, racking up two strikeouts of his own to bring the staff’s total to 15.
The two teams will continue their weekend series Saturday afternoon with Purdue transfer Khal Stephen, who struck out 11 in his first start with MSU last weekend against Air Force, on the mound for the Bulldogs. Lefty Mitchell Gross is expected to start for Georgia Southern.
“Instead of focusing on our at-bats, we were focusing on putting our pitchers or putting the pitchers in the best situations they could possibly be in,” Long said. “We’re going to keep doing that throughout the year and we’re going to keep focusing on being better teammates. If that keeps happening, we’re going to have a lot of success.”
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