As the team bus pulled up to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis turned to Scott Foxhall with a question.

“Are you sure we can’t start Ethan Small?” he asked.

With a matchup against No. 5 LSU, it was only natural for the Bulldogs’ skipper to want his ace on the mound for fourth-seeded Mississippi State’s first game of the 2019 Southeastern Conference tournament. But Lemonis trusted his pitching coach and stuck with freshman Brandon Smith instead. The strategy worked as Smith went into the fifth inning and six relievers helped lead Mississippi State to a wild 17-inning win over the Tigers.

Two years later, Lemonis and the Bulldogs will be faced with a similar situation. The coach said Mississippi State won’t rely on weekend starters Christian MacLeod or Will Bednar for Wednesday’s opening game against No. 6 Florida as MSU tries to strike a delicate balance between making a Hoover run and saving its bullets for NCAA tournament play.

“We won’t push pitchers and put them in bad situations, but hopefully we’re set up now that we have the bye,” Lemonis said. “We can go out there and compete every game and hopefully we’re playing there at the end of the week.”

He said the goal is taking home a trophy and bolstering Mississippi State’s seeding case. Baseball America projects MSU to be the No. 6 overall seed and D1Baseball.com has the Dawgs at No. 7 after a weekend sweep of Alabama, but Lemonis knows there’s no harm in trying to get one last résumé boost while his team still can.

“It looks like what we did last week put us in a really good spot with RPI and national seed stuff, but we can help ourselves,” he said. “We can be a higher seed, a better RPI this week. You want to be playing good at this time of year.”

After losing two of three to Missouri at Dudy Noble Field the previous weekend, the Bulldogs missed out on a chance to contend for the conference title and seemed to be ice cold at the worst possible time. But taking all three games from the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa behind strong performances from MacLeod and Bednar helped Mississippi State right the ship a bit.

“Obviously, we would have liked to win the SEC, and we were disappointed the week before, but nothing we can do about it now,” Lemonis said. “Our kids bounced back and played well.”

Outfielders hope to build on success

Senior right fielder Tanner Allen — who won the Boo Ferriss Trophy and was named SEC player of the year Monday — and freshman left fielder Kellum Clark were both big pieces of that success. Allen accrued five hits and drove in five runs in the series, and Clark had two hits including a double Thursday and recorded another hit Saturday.

Lemonis said Clark has worked with hitting Jake Gautreau to cut out a lot of lift from his swing, which has helped him make more solid contact.

“If he’s on time and hits the barrel, there’s a lot of good things that can happen,” Lemonis said. “There’s a lot of force generated in that big body.”

Harding rebounds after tough start

Houston Harding, too, had a dominant performance against the Tide, pitching 5.2 scoreless relief innings on Saturday in the Bulldogs’ 7-3 win. Harding said he grew up watching the SEC tournament since he was small, and the Itawamba Community College transfer will get his first crack at taking the stage in Hoover.

“It’s an absolute dream come true to be able to go there this Wednesday,” Harding said. “I’m beyond excited to get there and play in that tournament.”

Lemonis praised Harding’s outing after a tough start against the Tigers in Starkville on May 15. The left-hander allowed six runs — four of them earned — in just two innings as Missouri took the series with a 16-8 win. Just a week later, Harding was virtually unhittable as the Bulldogs sealed the sweep.

“That was one of the better performances we have had all year,” Lemonis said. “He bounced back off one of the worst performances of his career. Really happy for him.”

Scouting the Gators

Lemonis has only taken part in one SEC tournament since taking over at Mississippi State, but he knows the event well enough to be well aware special games like Harding’s are common in Hoover.

From a Florida team lacking a real statistical star, it could come from anyone. Jacob Young, Sterlin Thompson and Nathan Hickey are all hitting above .300 for the Gators with Colby Halter right behind at .299. Outfielder Jud Fabian, ranked the No. 17 draft prospect in the nation by MLB.com, is slugging .589 with 20 home runs.

On the mound, No. 1 starter Tommy Mace has pitched the most innings of any Gator on the roster, but he’ll be unavailable after five strong innings Tuesday in a 4-1 win over No. 11 seed Kentucky. Hunter Barco (9-2, 4.04 ERA) is the only other Florida pitcher with double-digit starts, but Franco Aleman (eight starts), Jack Leftwich (six) and Garrett Milchin (six) all have starting experience.

Looking ahead

If the Bulldogs can get past the Gators, they’ll play in a winners’ bracket matchup against Tennessee or Alabama at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. A loss would send Mississippi State to the losers’ bracket against the loser of that contest at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, where a second defeat could eliminate the Bulldogs.

Lemonis isn’t ready to bow out so soon, of course. As Mississippi State gets set to begin its first game in Hoover, he and his team still hope to play for the tournament title.

“I’d love to be there on Sunday afternoon taking a trophy home,” Lemonis said. “We have a lot secured and a lot to play for. But this game is about competing, and we get a chance to compete against the best conference in the country this week. Hopefully we can do some damage.”

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.