STARKVILLE — Brad Cumbest stood in the batter’s box and watched strike three sail by.
The Mississippi State left fielder went down on three pitches to strand the bases loaded in the first inning as the Bulldogs wasted another scoring chance.
But when Cumbest returned to the plate with two men on in the third, he was ready to make amends.
Cumbest socked a line-drive home run to left field to put MSU up 4-1 against Northern Kentucky on Saturday, a hit that meant even more than the three runs it drove in for the Bulldogs’ frustrated offense.
“It gave us a little bit of a cushion and let us play a little bit more loose,” catcher Logan Tanner said. “We weren’t hitting to not get out. We were hitting to hit at that point.”
Tanner hit one of two other home runs for the Bulldogs in a 10-1 win for Mississippi State (3-3) over Northern Kentucky (1-4) at Dudy Noble Field. MSU avenged Friday’s ugly 7-6 loss in which it managed just four hits all night and gave up 11 to the Norse.
“I thought we were a lot better today just being ready to hit,” Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis said.
Lemonis detailed the Bulldogs’ struggles hitting the fastball after Friday’s game, but those issues were all but gone Saturday as four MSU players had multiple hits. Kamren James was one thanks to his two-run homer in the eighth inning, while Tanner had an RBI single in the third and Cumbest added a double in the seventh.
First baseman Luke Hancock added a pair of singles among Mississippi State’s nine hits on the day.
The Bulldogs had a pair of four-run innings in the third and seventh a day after Lemonis called them out for failing to compete in the opener of the three-game weekend series against the previously winless Norse.
“We’re going to get beat,” Lemonis said. “We play in a good league. Teams are going to beat us. But when we don’t compete like we should, that’s kind of the piece that got me yesterday. They came out and responded today.”
Pitcher Preston Johnson delivered a strong start, going 6.1 innings and allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out five. Johnson took KC Hunt’s place in the Saturday spot in the weekend rotation, throwing his two offspeed pitches and his change-up for strikes.
“Once you can do that and just keep hitters off the fastball, it’s a lot easier to pitch,” Tanner said. “He really kept them off balance all day, and it was really nice.”
Johnson said he was nervous to the point of nausea Saturday morning in anticipation of his first start as a Bulldog. He received the news in a four-word text from Lemonis on Tuesday: “(Bull)pen (session) Wednesday. Start Saturday.”
“It was a little bit of celebration because I’ve been waiting on this and preparing for it, so it was nice to get an opportunity,” Johnson said.
He made the most of it, as did freshman Pico Kohn in his second relief outing of the year. The left-hander from Verbena, Alabama, pitched 2.2 scoreless innings to finish the game, allowing just two hits and striking out three batters.
Lemonis said Kohn was set to pitch last Sunday before the Bulldogs blew open the series finale against Long Beach State and is likely poised for higher-leverage work soon.
“Pico’s a big piece,” Lemonis said. “He was a big recruit here; he’s pitched well his whole life. He’s going to be a big piece of this rotation.”
Kohn’s outing was the final piece of a strong game for Mississippi State. The only blemish on the Bulldogs’ day was a solo home run allowed by Johnson in the second inning.
But Tanner’s single through the left side tied the game in the third. Two batters later, Cumbest untied it — for good — and left memories of his first trip to the plate in the dust.
“That was a disappointing first at-bat,” Lemonis said. “I told him that after the game. But he had some big swings after that.”
Mississippi State will go for the series win at 1 p.m. Sunday with sophomore Cade Smith on the mound.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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