St. John’s was not completely out of its mind walking David Mershon in the 10th inning Friday night with two outs, the winning run at third base and Dakota Jordan, Mississippi State’s best all-around hitter, coming up next.
The sophomore right fielder entered the game with just one hit in his last 22 at-bats, and he looked all out of sorts against Red Storm starter Xavier Kolhosser, sitting on an 0-for-4 showing with three strikeouts as he stepped to the plate against Louis Marinaro.
But after falling behind 0-2 in the count, Jordan took two balls, then lifted a high fly ball to deep right field that carried over the wall for a walk-off, three-run home run, giving the Bulldogs a 5-2 victory in the opening round of the Charlottesville Regional.
MSU (39-21) touched up Xavier Kolhosser in the second inning when Amani Larry drew a four-pitch walk and then Logan Kohler’s fly ball to left-center field carried over the fence for a two-run homer, his sixth of the year, to give the Bulldogs the early lead. But Kolhosser settled in from there and silenced the MSU bats through the next six-plus innings.
Kohler continued to see the ball well all night against Kolhosser, hitting doubles to right field in the fourth and seventh innings, but his teammates managed just two hits combined through seven — singles from David Mershon and Aaron Downs.
Stephen was excellent on the mound, striking out 10 without issuing a walk in eight innings, but he ran into some trouble in the fourth, allowing two hits to put runners at second and third with one out. An infield pop-up put Stephen on the verge of escaping the jam, but Marty Higgins hit a soft line drive that found the outfield grass in shallow center for a game-tying two-run single.
Takeaways
1. Khal Stephen showed he is true ace material in his NCAA Tournament debut. The right-hander spent his first two seasons at Purdue, a program with just three NCAA Tournament appearances in its history, before growing into one of the best pitchers in the Southeastern Conference in his first season with MSU. Apart from that fourth inning, Stephen was dominant and efficient, throwing 78 of his 99 pitches for strikes and consistently working from ahead in the count.
He also saved the bulk of the bullpen from working in the opening game. Left-hander Tyler Davis held the Red Storm (37-17-1) scoreless in the ninth and 10th, but the rest of the relievers should be good to go Saturday against host and No. 12 seed Virginia.
2. Dakota Jordan is still this team’s heartbeat. Nobody took Jordan’s slump harder than the man himself, and he did hit a few balls hard in the SEC Tournament last week before snapping his lengthy hitless stretch with a clutch two-run single a week ago against Tennessee. St. John’s head coach Mike Hampton said walking Mershon was “the wrong decision,” and it certainly looks that way in hindsight, but the Red Storm may have been counting on Jordan being in his own head due to his recent struggles. Jordan, though, stayed within himself and came out a hero.
3. The Bulldogs sure have a flair for the dramatic. Every game MSU played in the SEC Tournament was either decided by one run or came down to the final inning, and the Bulldogs have played 19 one-run games for the season. After battling through the toughest conference in college baseball, MSU is as battle-tested as any team in the field of 64, and it showed in the way the Bulldogs pitched and were able to come through at the plate in the end.
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