HOOVER, Ala. — With two out in the bottom of the seventh inning of Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference tournament game between Mississippi State and Florida, Brad Cumbest strode to the plate to pinch hit for Kellum Clark.
The second pitch he saw hit him in the hand.
Cumbest trotted down to first base, then went around to third on Brayland Skinner’s single to left-center. Soon, he was jogging back into the Bulldogs’ first-base dugout once Lane Forsythe flied out to right field for the final out.
Cumbest’s plunking was a fittingly painful conclusion for No. 3 seed Mississippi State (40-14) in an unsightly 13-1, run-rule loss to Florida (37-19), the tournament’s sixth-seeded team. The Bulldogs gave up 18 hits, managed just four and earned themselves a date with No. 2 seed Tennessee in an elimination game at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
“They beat us in every facet of the game today: pitching, hitting, defense,” first baseman Luke Hancock said.
Bulldogs coach Chris Lemonis chose to keep weekend starters Christian MacLeod and Will Bednar on track and went with a bullpen game of sorts instead, handing right-hander Brandon Smith the ball to open the game. From the get-go, Smith was hit around the yard by the Gators, allowing eight hits and six runs in two-plus innings.
“I was really hoping to get out there and give us a great start so we could have him as a starter in the regional,” Lemonis said. “He still could do that. They did a good job staying on him, fought off some tough pitches in two-strike counts early in that game, and then they extended some innings. He had some good stuff. His stuff was good. He just didn’t pitch great.”
Cam Tullar fared little better, allowing three runs as Florida batted around and put together a five-run third inning. The Gators added two runs against KC Hunt in the seventh to push the contest over the 10-run, seven-inning threshold needed for the run rule. When Mississippi State stranded Cumbest and Skinner, an ugly first game for the Bulldogs was over at last.
“We weren’t real good in all phases of the game,” Lemonis said.
At the plate, Mississippi State swung the bats well for one mere inning before the Gators’ Hunter Barco shut them down entirely. Allen had a double in the first and Luke Hancock singled him home with two away, answering Florida’s first-inning run on a wild pitch.
But the Gators got right back to business against Smith in the second. A combination of sharp and softly hit singles led to three runs thanks to a two-run single by Florida’s Kris Armstrong.
The Gators stretched out the lead in the third as Sterlin Thompson homered to right field and another single chased Smith from the game. Tullar allowed a two-run single and a two-run double before escaping the lengthy frame with his team down 9-1.
“We faced some really good arms today from Mississippi State, and our guys were just having really quality competitive at-bats, and hopefully we can continue this momentum into tomorrow,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, struggled to put together the same at-bats against Barco. He retired Mississippi State in order in the second and again in the third before the Bulldogs stranded runners on the corners in the fourth. On a ground ball to first in the sixth, Logan Tanner inexplicably stopped running to second and was out by 45 feet to finish an inning-ending double play.
Thompson lashed a two-run double in the seventh against Hunt to put the Gators up double digits.
Lemonis said the Bulldogs will continue their search for a third starter as they head into NCAA tournament play, and the recent weekend strategy of deploying Jackson Fristoe as a sort of opener and having Houston Harding behind him is a likely option.
But Mississippi State won’t have to worry about that yet. Lemonis confirmed Christian MacLeod will take the baseball Thursday as the Bulldogs hope to fight off an early exit from the Hoover Met.
“The last thing you want to do is go home,” Lemonis said. “We’re going to come out guns a-blazin’. We’ll have everybody ready to go.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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