STARKVILLE — Rowdey Jordan was given no warning, no justification and no explanation. All he was given was an edict from Mississippi State interim baseball coach Gary Henderson.
“He just walked up to me and said, ‘You’re going to be batting second today. You have an opportunity to do a job, do your job and do whatever you can to help this team,'” Jordan said.
It was unchartered territory for the freshman left fielder, who had 26 starts to his name and all of them in the 9-hole before that Saturday night. His three hits and two runs scored made the gamble worth it.
Jordan was the biggest mover in some unexpected lineup changes that produced 28 hits and 15 runs over the final two games of the series against Texas A&M (32-12, 11-10 Southeastern Conference). MSU lost Sunday’s game 7-4, dropping the series two games to one and its record to 24-21, 9-12 SEC.
“That was good, for the whole team and for me as well,” Jordan said. “I enjoyed being back at the top of the lineup.
“I have no idea why.”
Jake Gautreau is the reason why.
Gautreau, MSU’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, painted the picture of he and Henderson sharing the latter’s office Saturday afternoon before the game, Henderson formulating a pitching plan for the day while the two contemplated a lineup change. Gautreau put together a few options and Henderson told him the one with Jordan at No. 2, “looks pretty good on paper.” The other fallout was moving previous 2-hole hitter Luke Alexander to the cleanup, bumping Hunter Stovall down one slot. Finally, it put the designated hitter, on this day Josh Hatcher, at Jordan’s former home of the 9-hole.
“Rowdey brings a lot of options in regards to how you’re going to run the offense and how you’re going to attack the game,” Gautreau said. “Rowdey’s had some really good at-bats for us lately and he can run. All of a sudden you’ve got (Jake) Mangum, who seems to always be on base and Rowdey right behind him, if they can take advantage and both get on base they can both move. Rowdey is pretty skilled in regards to bunting and hit-and-runs and things like that and then you have LA (Alexander), who’s been really good for us in the two, he’s leading us in RBIs so we figure we see if we can get him to drive in runs from the four.”
France rebounds
Luck did not favor the hot hand of the MSU pitching staff, JP France, in his Friday outing. After dominating Arkansas for four innings and retiring the lone batter he faced in the Governor’s Cup game against Ole Miss, France allowed three runs in one inning of work. It was an aberration for the graduate transfer’s season to date, given his 1.93 earned run average before that Friday appearance.
“The quality of contact he gave up, the two balls were really soft and obviously the changeup got roped through the middle, but two of those, I think most of the time that quality of contact is an out and it just wasn’t tonight,” Henderson said.
Catcher Marshall Gilbert saw a version of France with, “the same stuff,” just a few misses high in the strike zone thanks to mechanics changes. All was much better by Sunday, as France relieved a short start by Jacob Billingsley with 4 2/3 innings. He covered it with three runs allowed and 79 pitches — once again, with no help from luck.
“I thought he did a really good job,” Henderson said. “A little more slider than change today, last time it was the opposite. He brought us an aggressive presence that we needed at that time.
“Obviously the baseball gods weren’t looking fondly on him in the eighth inning. Not only were those soft contact, those were two really well-executed pitches on his part.”
Gilbert takes over
For the first time since the first SEC series of the season back in mid-March, MSU used the same catcher for all three games of a weekend series. Marshall Gilbert was the man and without rotating with Dustin Skelton, he went 6-for-10 with three RBI and one run scored. The junior transfer from John A. Logan College (Illinois) has never rotated in this fashion, but he’s come to find things he enjoys about it.
“It’s been different, and honestly I like it because there are things I see outside of the game when I’m not playing that I can’t see when I’m in it,” Gilbert said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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