STARKVILLE — Gary Henderson has been around baseball long enough to know you don’t have to wait long to see something new.
Forgive the coaching veteran if he prefers not to see another season like the one the Mississippi State baseball team has experienced in 2017.
With injuries to as many as nine players who could have contributed to the pitching staff, Henderson has worked with head coach Andy Cannizaro to cobble together a pitching staff that helped the Bulldogs finish in the top half of the Southeastern Conference and secure the program’s 36th NCAA tournament appearance.
“I have never been a part of anything remotely like this, not even half this many (injuries),” Henderson said. “In terms of how it impacts me, it doesn’t impact me a lot. You have who you have and you have to do the best job you can to maximize every pitcher’s ability.”
Henderson will continue to preach that attitude today when No. 2 seed and No. 20 MSU (36-24) takes on No. 3 seed South Alabama (39-19) at 6 p.m. in the NCAA tournament’s Hattiesburg Regional at Southern Mississippi’s Pete Taylor Park.
No. 1 seed and No. 14 USM (48-14) will play host to No. 4 seed Illinois-Chicago (39-15) at 1 p.m. today.
The winners of those two games will play at 6 p.m. Saturday. The losers will play at 1 p.m. Saturday in the double-elimination regional.
Injuries have forced MSU to use 20 pitchers this season, which is the most of the four teams (USM and USA 17; UIC 14) in Hattiesburg. Ten of MSU’s pitchers have logged 12 or more appearances.
Cannizaro credits Henderson for helping the Bulldogs get to this point. He said the longtime coach, who has worked as an assistant at Oregon State, Florida, and Kentucky and been a head coach at Kentucky, has played an integral role in devising a plan for all of the pitchers.
It’s a plan that Cannizaro, Henderson, and the rest of the coaching staff have went over countless times with a pencil.
“He has done such an incredible job balancing the innings, the bullpens, just navigating this entire regular season and SEC tournament with the number of arms we have available,” Cannizaro said. “He works relentlessly to make sure we have guys available to pitch on any given and day and that guys are continuing to get better every day, even when they aren’t throwing bullpens.”
Henderson has done that by preaching to his pitchers about “attacking the strike zone.” He said he continues to talk “non-stop” to his pitchers about being aggressive and being efficient. He admits not all of the pitchers have been as efficient as he would like, but he said that hasn’t stopped him or the pitchers from working to get to a point where they can command the count and the strike zone.
The fact that 10 of the 16 Bulldogs to make their debut this season are pitchers has added to the complexity of Henderson’s ability to manage the pitching staff.
The statistics show part of MSU’s struggles on the mound. The Bulldogs are 13th in the SEC in earned run average (4.89), first in saves (23), 10th in hits allowed (486), 14th in runs allowed (315), fifth in strikeouts (512), and 14th in walks (319). The walks are 59 more than 13th-place Alabama.
Despite not being where he wants in several categories, Henderson said he has been impressed by the competitiveness of all of the pitchers. That is a trait that runs throughout a team that has 22 come-from-behind victories this season.
“I think if you watch our team play we do a really good job of competing and we have a group that is fun to watch,” Henderson said. “The part of that that comes across is our kids like to compete.”
Henderson said that mind-set is prevalent on a pitching staff in which players haven’t dwelled on who is available. Instead, he said the Bulldogs have continued to try to maximize what they have.
“To a large extent this group has been able to do that,” Henderson said.
MSU has done that thanks to a group that includes redshirt sophomore right-hander Cole Gordon, who will start today’s game against USA, and freshman right-hander Denver McQuary. Gordon (16 appearances) and McQuary (19) were infield candidates when the Bulldogs started practice in the fall, but the injuries have created new roles for players, which Gordon and McQuary and others have accepted and embraced, Henderson said.
Henderson also praised sophomore left-hander Konnor Pilkington, who has been the ace of the staff with a 7-5 record and a 3.13 ERA in a team-high 95 innings. He said Pilkington has continued to improve throughout the course of the season, which is part of the reason Henderson likes MSU’s chances this weekend, even after a season filled with injuries and plans that had to be changed repeatedly.
“We have a number of guys that have improved through the course of the season, and that is what we choose to focus on and build on,” Henderson said. “We have some guys who have scuffled a bit, but there is still enough baseball left to leave the season feeling really good about themselves.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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