STARKVILLE — “Tuesday night brawl, right?”
Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis was likely a bit more comfortable joking around after a crazy win than a crazy loss, but one could easily tell how much he enjoyed the Bulldogs’ 17-9 Tuesday night comeback win against Memphis.
With conference play starting up across the country most teams have to roll with the punches that come with the season for midweek games. While this one nearly got out of control for MSU, the team responded as they did during the weekend against LSU, by forcing the issue at the plate and calming things down on defense. The result? After going down early, the Bulldogs scored 14 unanswered runs to take control of the game.
“They were in the same situation as us, we just hadn’t gotten into that bullpen yet, and the guys did a great job being patient and taking what they gave them,” Lemonis said. “You usually start to see that on Tuesdays and Sundays in this league so we did a good job of winning that game.”
The Tigers (11-12) had a strong start to the game, putting themselves up 9-3 against a lackluster MSU. The five-run fifth was enough to wake up the Bulldogs though, and they responded with seven of their own in the bottom half of the fifth to take the lead.
Connor Hujsak and David Mershon were unstoppable at the plate, combining for five hits, and Dakota Jordan added his 11th home run of the season.
Normally teams don’t like to make a habit of allowing nine runs as the Bulldogs have done twice in the past three games, but once again the team’s confidence in all facets of the game pulled them through. A strong appearance by Colby Holcombe out of the bullpen set the tone and the batting order responded with hits.
“I think the guys are starting to believe in themselves a little bit,” Lemonis said. “Instead of pressing and panicking there, it was more like, ‘Alright let’s get to work.’ That’s what you do in this game. All you do is play every inning the same, consistent. My fear was they’d try to do too much, but they didn’t.”
This was MSU’s last home game until April as they travel for SEC series’ against Texas A&M and Georgia over the next two weeks, with a trip to Birmingham to face Samford sandwiched in between. Lemonis is looking forward to facing an experienced Aggies team this weekend, one which will again test a Bulldog offense that has turned on lately.
“We’re going to have to go out there and compete and fight, have a great two-strike fight,” he said. “They have some really talented arms this year, and we’re at their place, that makes a difference. A lot of these guys are older players. I’m not playing freshmen, I’m playing guys that have been through it so I’m excited to see how they get after it.”
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