STARKVILLE — Mississippi State’s offense had finally broken through against Austin Peay starting pitcher Lyle Miller-Green, and the Bulldogs seemed poised for a big sixth inning.
Miller-Green had flummoxed MSU’s bats through five innings Tuesday, holding them to just two hits, but with the heart of the Bulldogs’ lineup facing him for the third time, Dakota Jordan drew a leadoff walk, Hunter Hines lashed a single through the right side and Bryce Chance lined a base hit of his own to right field, scoring Jordan to at last put MSU on the board.
Then the Governors went to the bullpen — and the Bulldogs never got another hit, wasting an excellent day from the pitching staff in a 3-2 loss at Dudy Noble Field.
“I don’t know why we’re pressing at the plate in week one,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We’re not making people get us out; we’re getting ourselves out a lot. We’re not controlling the counts. The amount of times we had a 3-2 count tonight and we swung out of the zone at a ball instead of taking the walk, we’ve been talking about it all week. … You have to be disciplined, and we’re just not showing a lot of discipline right now.”
Kyle Klingenbeck relieved Miller-Green and plunked the first batter he faced, Connor Hujsak, to load the bases with nobody out. Ross Highfill hit a ball sharply to center field for a sacrifice fly to bring home Hines and make it a one-run game, but Nate Chester struck out swinging, and after Austin Peay made another pitching change, freshman Jackson McKenzie pinch-hit for catcher Joe Powell and grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
MSU (2-2) left nine runners on base, and none of the Bulldogs’ four hits went for extra bases.
“I don’t understand right now,” Lemonis said. “We’ve got good hitters. Maybe they’re trying to do a little too much right now, but we’re going to have to fix that and make people get us out with good pitches instead of balls out of the zone.”
Starkville Academy graduate Evan Siary started for MSU and allowed three hits and a run in the first inning, but limited the damage there and worked a scoreless second before giving way to freshman left-hander Nolan Stevens.
Making his first appearance on the mound as a Bulldog, Stevens got some help from his defense when Hujsak ran down a long drive in center field and doubled off a runner at first. But with two outs, Stevens hit Justin Olson on a 2-2 pitch, and Jon Jon Gazdar made him pay with a two-run home run over the fence in left-center to give the Governors (3-1) a three-run lead.
“I’m not as worried about the home run as I am about the HBP,” Lemonis said. “(Stevens) has to get his lefties out. I thought he did that as the night went on. I was happy for him. He’s got a chance to be a big piece for us.”
After putting two runners on base in the first and failing to score, MSU was unable to even get a runner into scoring position in the next four innings. The Bulldogs’ bullpen, though, was outstanding — MSU pitching struck out 13 batters without issuing a walk.
Brooks Auger, who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, worked 2.1 innings Tuesday and allowed just one hit, striking out three.
“We kind of got beaten down throughout the season (last year) and we just let it get to us,” Auger said. “We came into this season knowing that regardless of what happened, the next guy is going to pick us up. We’re very confident in each other as a pitching staff.”
Lefty Cole Cheatham struck out the only batter he faced to start the eighth, and Cam Schuelke needed just 14 pitches to get five outs. But the Bulldogs were unable to cash in two walks in the seventh, went down quietly in the eighth and did nothing with Johnny Long’s leadoff walk in the ninth.
The teams will wrap up their two-game midweek series Wednesday in what will likely be a bullpen day for MSU. The Bulldogs’ starting pitcher had not been announced as of Tuesday evening.
“We’ve pitched well enough all week to win. We should probably have enough to win every game that we’ve played, but we’re just not getting it offensively,” Lemonis said. “You go through the ebb and flow of the season and sometimes you’re hot and sometimes you’re not. Unfortunately we’ve started out offensively not, and we have to figure that out.”
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