STARKVILLE — The NCAA tournament’s Starkville Super Regional is set.
With the No. 11 national seed Stanford baseball team coming to town, No. 6 national seed MSU (49-13) will play host its second Super Regional in the last four years.
In the three days leading up to Game 1 at 2 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2), we will offer a position-by-position breakdown of the Cardinal (45-12). Up first is the Stanford the infield and catchers.
Any discussion of Stanford’s infield begins with first baseman Andrew Daschbach and second baseman Duke Kinamon.
In 57 starts, Daschbach is hitting .300 with a 1.022 OPS — the sum of his on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. He leads the team in total bases (127) and is second in home runs (17).
Daschbach’s 412 putouts are second No. 2 on the team, while he also boasts a .991 fielding percentage.
Kinamon, a 5-foot-11, redshirt junior, is second on the team with a .309 batting average. He has started 47 of 48 games. He has 106 assists and seven errors.
Shortstop Tim Tawa and third baseman Nick Bellafronto round out the infield.
Tawa is one of five players to start 56 or more games for the Cardinal. He is hitting .248 entering the Super Regionals. Defensively, he has turned 29 double plays — the third most on the team behind Kinamon and Daschbach. He also leads Stanford with 140 assists.
Bellafronto is hitting .270. Thirteen of his 34 hits are doubles, which is tied for the second best mark on the team.
Behind the plate, catcher Maverick Handley is the heartbeat of the team. Handley’s two home runs against Fresno State in the final of the Stanford Regional helped propel the Cardinal to Starkville. The Baltimore Orioles took him in the sixth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft on Tuesday.
Handley is hitting .293. He is second on the team with 33 walks.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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