STARKVILLE — Mississippi State followed its 2021 script to a T Saturday.
Falling in line with outings past, the Bulldogs watched a weekend starter struggle and fell behind in the middle innings against a visiting opponent for approximately the 137th time this spring. But rather than find a run capped off by dramatic heroics, No. 3 MSU (7-3) diverged from the director’s notes, falling 9-5 to Kent State (4-3) in Game 2 of the scheduled three-game set.
“I don’t think anybody on our team wants to start badly,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “It’s just what’s happening and it feels like every day it’s the same story.”
Bulldog starter Eric Cerantola added another chapter to the growing list of erratic starts by MSU’s weekend rotation. After a prompt 1-2-3 first inning, Cerantola reverted to the persistently perplexing stuff that has scouts puzzled as to what he might be at the next level. Blessed with a 6-foot-5 frame and an arm that can paint 100 miles per hour on the radar gun, the hard-throwing Canadian walked Justin Miknis on seven pitches to start his second inning of work. A single and a walk loaded the bases.
Back-to-back strikeouts offered a brief glimpse at Cerantola’s dynamism when he’s locating in the zone. But as has been the case all too often during his three year MSU career, it was just that, a flash. Singles by Michael McNamara and a walk by leadoff man Cam Touchette sparked the Golden Flashes to two of the seven runs they’d score between the second and fifth innings.
“He just needs to pitch, but the reality is there’s a fine line between getting his work and us winning,” a noticeably irritated Lemonis said postgame. “Those have to coincide. (We’re) trying to get him out there and get him comfortable, but not a really good day today.”
Yanked after surrendering four runs on five hits and walking four in three innings pitched, Cerantola became the latest Bulldog weekend starter to struggle out of the gate. Friday, ace Christian MacLeod was pulled after getting through just 1.2 innings and was spared a loss courtesy of a gem relief performance from third-year sophomore Brandon Smith.
Now nearly through three weekend’s worth of baseball, MSU hasn’t had a weekend starter survive more than four innings. MacLeod and Cerantola also now boast a combined 7.30 ERA in 14 innings this spring.
While MSU’s rotation remains an ongoing concern, the Bulldog battery never turned its usual corner Saturday, crashing head-first into Kent State starter Luke Albright.
Albright, who was supposed to pitch Friday, added insult to MSU’s recent injury at the dish. Rated the No. 85 prospect on MLB.com’s top 100 2021 draft eligible players, the 6-foot-4 righty controlled the zone, mixing pitches in and around Bulldog batters as he ran his pitch count up to 90 in 6.2 innings.
Surrendering two runners on the seventh, Albright was pulled after allowing just one run on five hits, while walking four and striking out four.
“The common trend the last couple games, man, is to keep us off balance,” fourth-year junior Tanner Allen explained. “We hit fastball really well. And he just kept mixing and mixing and mixing, We were getting ourselves out.”
MSU had scored 42 of its 57 runs this year in the fifth inning or later entering the day. The Bulldogs had also averaged 8.2 runners left on base per game and were hitting just .262 as a team.
Sticking to the trend, MSU found a brief spell of hope courtesy of a three-run ninth inning sparked by a two-run double by pinch hitter Kyte McDonald, but Saturday’s hole was too deep to escape.
MSU has overcome its early inning woes for the bulk of this spring. But on a day in which a late-inning rally never quite materialized enough to spell trouble in the Kent State dugout, Saturday offered a glaring reminder that, as Lemonis said earlier this week, the Bulldogs are playing far from their best baseball.
“I personally think we’re one of the best teams in the country,” Allen said. “Did we play like it today? No. But everybody’s going to get beat, man. It’s a hard sport. It’s a game of failures. So you’ve got to see how you react to it.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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