Mississippi State has come this far after two down years thanks to its pitching. But if the Bulldogs are going to advance out of the Charlottesville Regional, they will need their two biggest bats to help carry the freight.
Right fielder Dakota Jordan and first baseman Hunter Hines, MSU’s best power hitters who have anchored the middle of the lineup all year long, have just one hit between them in their last 46 at-bats combined. The Bulldogs (38-21) still pitched well enough to win two games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, but asking them to make a deep NCAA Tournament run without Jordan and Hines as major contributors is a tall order.
MSU’s loss to Tennessee last Friday night gave the Bulldogs a full week of rest before they take the field again against St. John’s, and they spent Saturday and Sunday away from the field before returning to practice Monday.
“It is good to get away from the game,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “Sometimes this game can be really cruel. We’ve got a good lineup. They’ve hit all year, and they’ve had weeks where they haven’t hit and they’ve come back and hit. They’re out here banging balls. (Hitting coach Jake Gautreau) will have them ready to go.”
Jordan and Hines have struck out a combined 17 times over their last five games, with Hines wearing the inglorious golden sombrero against Texas A&M last Wednesday. But both have also hit several balls hard — Jordan was retired three times on fly balls to the outfield against Ole Miss last Tuesday, and Hines was robbed of a potential game-tying hit in the ninth inning of that game on a diving stop by the Rebels’ first baseman.
Lemonis has adjusted the lineup as a result of their struggles, moving Jordan from the No. 3 position to the four-hole and shifting Hines all the way down to seventh. After popping out to infielders in foul territory his first two times up against Tennessee, Jordan broke out of it with a tie-breaking two-run single in the fifth, a hit that immediately followed a brief scuffle that saw both benches empty onto the field.
“We kind of got into a little ruckus there with Tennessee, and Dakota went from thinking about his swing to thinking he wanted to beat Tennessee,” Lemonis said. “It frees him up a little bit, and he gets a hit. Hopefully he’ll take that into this week. … Those two haven’t been hot together. Maybe this is the time they get hot together and where we can really go on a run. We’d be as good as anybody if those two guys get hot.”
MSU also has a potential conundrum at catcher, where Johnny Long is mired in an 0-for-19 funk but has the best chemistry with the Bulldogs’ top two starting pitchers, Khal Stephen and Jurrangelo Cijntje.
Joe Powell typically catches when someone other than Stephen and Cijntje are starting on the mound, and his strong finish to the regular season at the plate earned him four starts at designated hitter over the last two weeks.
“Joe had a concussion earlier in the year, and Johnny got in the mix,” Lemonis said. “Johnny was catching (Stephen and Cijntje) when they really got going, but I think Joe could catch them too. I really have to look at it for this weekend. I have to try to figure out the best offensive team. Joe’s a little bit better of a thrower for us, so I’m trying to get Joe in there to throw if somebody’s more baserunning-oriented. We have some different options.”
Many happy returns
It has been 11 years since MSU’s last visit to Charlottesville, but that trip ended with the Bulldogs mobbing one another on the pitcher’s mound after a two-game sweep of Virginia in the 2013 super regionals.
MSU exploded for 20 hits in an 11-6 win in Game 1. Adam Frazier, who is now in his ninth season in Major League Baseball, was 6-for-6 with a double and a triple, and Hunter Renfroe, who likewise reached the big leagues in 2016, was 4-for-5.
Game 2 was suspended for a day due to rain before the Bulldogs defeated the Cavaliers 6-5 behind a home run from Wes Rea and 10 strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of relief from Chad Girodo. MSU went on to reach the national championship series for the first time before falling to UCLA.
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