STARKVILLE — Freshman switch-pitching phenom Jurrangelo Cijntje got the start on Wednesday afternoon for Mississippi State, a long-awaited start since signing with the Bulldogs.
After exclusively pitching from the right side over the weekend, Cijntje showcased his arm from both sides, touching as high as 96 miles per hour right-handed and 92 mph left-handed.
In doing so, he shut down a Louisiana–Monroe offense that touched MSU for 11 runs on Tuesday, tossing four shutout innings while striking out seven Warhawks.
The Mississippi State offense backed him up big time, putting up a five-spot in the fourth inning as some long drives and timely hitting helped the Bulldogs (3-2) rout ULM (3-2), 14-3, on Wednesday.
“I thought it was great,” Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis said. “He probably could have gone a little bit longer if we hadn’t thrown him the inning on Sunday, but it was an impressive night for him.”
Cijntje ended up throwing 75 pitches in his four innings of work, just a touch under 19 pitches an inning. It wasn’t ideal, but his stuff on the day was as the Warhawks were rendered clueless at the plate.
Just three hitters reached base in his four innings of work as he allowed one hit, one walk and hit a batter, a strong performance overall despite a high pitch count.
Offensively, the power display was in full effect at Dudy Noble Field as the Bulldogs hit two home runs that went 460 feet or more.
“We were making sure we squared up the fastball, be ready for it, and not chase anything down in the zone,” Colton Ledbetter said. “I think we did a lot better job of just being prepared for the fastball and squaring it up.”
Great weather and a steady wind blowing to right field definitely helped things out, but Slate Alford and Dakota Jordan put on a mini-home run derby for fans.
Jordan hit the furthest of the two, a 474-foot three-run shot in the seventh inning as a game already blown wide open became even more of a dominant performance, giving the Bulldogs a 13-0 lead at that point.
“We’ve been waiting for it,” Lemonis said. “He’s been trying to do a little bit too much, just a typical freshman, but he’s hit them like that in our practices. It’s just been crazy.”
Alford’s 460-foot blast in the sixth inning extended the lead to 8-0.
Mississippi State had two innings scoring five or more runs in the win as eight different hitters recorded hits, 10 scored at least one run and seven recorded at least one RBI.
Ledbetter, who had a great opening weekend against VMI, continued his hot start to his Mississippi State career as he went 2 for 5 with a double, a two-run homer into Adkerson Plaza and four RBIs.
Through five games, he’s hitting .391 with two homers and 10 RBIs for the Bulldogs, not wasting any time to get in the groove at the plate.
Among other offensive performances for Mississippi State included freshman Ross Highfill, who went 1 for 4 on Sunday but came alive on Wednesday, going 3 for 4 with two doubles, reaching base four times, driving in two and scoring two.
“Coming into college, it’s a big difference because you’ll have guys in high school throwing 80, and they’ll miss their spots,” Highfill said. “In college, there’s probably two pitches in a game that they’ll miss, and you just have to be ready to attack.”
The midweek got off to a rough start for the Bulldogs, but between Cijntje’s strong start and a near-complete offensive performance, MSU put itself in perfect position heading into an important weekend set against Arizona State (4-0).
Friday’s series opener begins at 4 p.m.
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