OXFORD — Josh Lovelady took the time to think this one through.
On March 19, Mississippi State’s senior catcher surveyed the delicate situation at his hands: MSU was 12-9 and 0-3 in Southeastern Conference play, a status earned after its just completed sweep at the hands of Arkansas.
Something had to be said, but it had to be delivered the right way.
That is when he came together with some other veterans — he named junior designated hitter/first baseman Brent Rooker, junior shortstop Ryan Gridley and senior utility Cody Brown as part of the group — to review their message.
“We said we’re going to stay positive. It’s a long year, we still (had) 27 games left in SEC play,” Lovelady said.
What they were looking for was confidence; one seven-game winning streak that remains active later, six of those games against conference foes, and there is no doubt MSU has it.
Players and coaches alike credit the moves that group of veterans made for the turnaround MSU baseball (19-10, 6-3 SEC) has experienced as it passed the midway point of the season last week, working its way up to the top five in the league.
MSU will test its hot streak in earnest next weekend as it hosts Kentucky (21-8, 7-2), currently tied for the league lead with Auburn for Super Bulldog Weekend. A five-game week begins with Florida International (16-11) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Dudy Noble Field.
The teams MSU swept to get hot, Tennessee and Ole Miss, have their well-documented weaknesses: entering Sunday’s games, Tennessee had one of the worst earned run averages in the league and Ole Miss had the worst batting average. Neither is a problem for Kentucky, ranking first and fifth, respectively, in those metrics.
Before the encouragement and positivity that began the run, Rooker delivered a dose of reality. He recognized going on the road for an SEC debut with a roster as inexperienced as theirs is, “a task,” but it’s not one that would change.
“We just wanted to reiterate that that’s what this league is and this is what we signed up for when we came to play for Mississippi State,” he said.
The de facto leadership group formed in those days was careful to not call a players-only meeting or anything of that formality to deliver their message. Lovelady said he knows some players get concerned when those things come up, those concerns undermining the message entirely.
From there, their united front presented nothing but positivity in the face of recent negative results. Rooker felt the roster was full of, “young, talented players looking for someone to lead them,” ready to listen to players like Lovelady and Brown, both in their fifth years at MSU, alongside he and Gridley.
Freshman Riley Self is an example. In the two weeks before the winning streak began, MSU lost five times; in that stretch, Self gave up six hits and three runs, all earned, in 2 2/3 innings pitched. Since then, Self has pitched four times, all four appearances against SEC competition, and thrown seven innings without allowing an earned run, giving up just five hits.
“They took the horns, led us through it and talked us up,” Self said. “I felt like some leaders stepped up big time and we really had the confidence to step up and win some games.”
Self is far from the only one on the same surge: Tanner Poole, in his first season on MSU’s active roster, hit safely in all three games of the sweep of Ole Miss, adding to a multi-hit game against Tennessee; Elijah MacNamee jumped his batting average up by 54 points in the series against Tennessee and had a multi-hit game in Oxford; Denver McQuary gave MSU three innings of crucial relief in the Friday win in Oxford after Peyton Plumlee’s start was cut short in the first inning.
“Up and down the lineup, there are teams in the country that are more talented than we are, but we’re playing together really, really well right now,” Rooker said. “That’s made the difference in these last seven games, different guys contributing to get us wins.”
Looking back on it, MSU coach Andy Cannizaro said there is, “no doubt,” the team changed after those conversations.
“It was one of those things where everybody knew you can’t just roll the balls out here and go win. You have to practice every single day the way you’re going to play in front of 11,000 people,” Cannizaro said. “Guys were practicing better, guys were playing better, there’s more confidence. I’m really proud of our guys for overcoming that opening weekend at Arkansas.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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