When the NCAA baseball tournament selection show rolls around, the Mississippi State baseball team may look at this weekend’s series loss at Auburn as a big missed opportunity.
The Bulldogs entered the three-game set tied with the Tigers in the Southeastern Conference West Division standings and had a chance to win their third-straight series.
Instead, they dropped two winnable games and took a step back from their postseason aspirations.
Here are three things we learned in MSU’s series loss at Auburn.
Series loss highlights MSU’s bullpen issue
MSU’s starting pitchers and bullpen arms continue to head in opposite directions.
Of the 24 runs Auburn scored this weekend, 15 were credited to Bulldog relievers and all of them happened during Saturday’s and Sunday’s games when MSU struggled to hang on to late leads.
On Saturday, KC Hunt allowed seven earned runs in his fifth inning of work after throwing four shutout frames. Aaron Nixon also allowed an earned run in that game, as well Sunday’s game-winning double in the bottom of the ninth.
Tyson Hardin also allowed two runs on Sunday. Graham Ynetma allowed one earned run after walking a batter and hitting two before getting pulled in the seventh inning of Sunday’s. And Nate Dohm allowed a three-run home run, which gave Auburn an 11-10 lead in the eighth inning to complete its Sunday afternoon comeback.
“We’ve got to pitch better,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis told reporters after Sunday’s game. “Don’t give up the freebies and then on top of it give up a homer. Not a good combination.”
To make matters worse, Dohm, who has been MSU’s setup arm since Nixon returned from injury, left the game with a nasty-looking arm injury after a pitch during the at-bat following the home run.
Who fills that role going forward, heading into Tuesday’s non-conference game against Ole Miss (6 p.m.) at Trustmark Park in Pear) and this weekend’s Southeastern Conference series at Tennessee is a major question for Lemonis.
Hunt could shift into that spot after Colby Holcombe, who started Saturday’s game in favor of Landon Gartman, returns to the bullpen, if Dohm’s injury keeps him out for an extended period.
Bulldogs continue to waste winnable game ones
Sunday’s missed opportunity speaks for itself, but this weekend could have realistically been a series sweep for MSU.
The Bulldogs are in a position where they can’t be giving away games, and in back-to-back series they wasted a winnable Friday opener, started by Cade Smith.
Smith has been dealing since getting healthy, pitching 10 combined innings over his last two starts, allowing eight hits, only two earned runs and striking out 10. He fanned six batters over six innings in Friday’s start against the Tigers.
However, the Bulldogs have provided him little run support in those outings, losing 3-2 to Ole Miss last week and 2-1 this Friday. MSU also struck out a season-high 14 times against the Tigers.
“I thought Cade was really good,” Lemonis told reporters following Friday’s game. “… We just need to do more offensively. It’s two Friday nights in a row we pretty much don’t show up offensively.”
David Mershon seems the starting SS going forward
It’s no surprise why it appears Lemonis has made the full-time switch to Mershon at shortstop instead of Lane Forsythe.
The true freshman has been a spark plug for the Bulldogs over the last two weekends and has been the cleaner fielder, outside of one play this weekend.
“He’s playing great,” Lemonis told reporters following Saturday’s win. “He (Mershon) made a couple of nice plays today, some nice at-bats. He plays with energy and runs a little bit. You can get a little bit of everything out of him.”
Forsythe, a senior, has a team-high 14 errors this season and has four hits in his last 18 at-bats, dating back to the Alabama series.
Since the Ole Miss series Mershon has just made things happen.
In Friday’s loss, Mershon beat out a two-out infield single, allowing Amani Larry to score from second and tie the game at 1.
In Saturday’s 11-10 win, he took away a hit deep in the hole at short with a sliding stop.
On Sunday, Mershon gave the Bulldogs a chance at extra innings with another infield hit, which ended up being an error, scoring Amani Larry to tie the game at 11.
Mershon, who also had a throwing error during Auburn’s Sunday comeback, finished the series with four hits, one RBI and two runs scored.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 48 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.