STARKVILLE — There’s no time to think about tomorrow.
Once the first pitch is thrown today at the NCAA Starkville Regional, Mississippi State University, the University of South Alabama, Mercer University, and the University of Central Arkansas won’t save anything for the future because two losses in college baseball’s postseason earns you a trip home. That will affect how the four coaches manage the 27 outs they have today when second-seeded USA takes on third-seeded Mercer at 2 p.m. and top-seeded and No. 14 MSU plays host to fourth-seeded UCA at 7 p.m. This is MSU’s first home regional in a decade, and a rematch from earlier in the season when UCA took two of three games March 8-10.
Whether it’s how they use their bullpen, decide if and when to attack on the bases, or how they approach playing at Dudy Noble Field, coaches face different challenges and bigger consequences than regular-season games.
“I think (coaching and playing differently in the postseason) does happen,” Baseball America national college writer Aaron Fitt said. “It’s natural for teams to feel more pressure when their seasons are on the line. Teams can also make strange lineup or mound choices in postseason settings.”
Last season based on injury and depth
issues, MSU coach John Cohen was forced to start left-handed pitcher Luis Pollorena in right field in his team’s first game at the Tallahassee Regional. Pollorena, who had only four plate appearances before the regional, went 2-for-11 in two starts in the fifth spot of the lineup. Decisions like that one can impact a team’s ability to extend its season.
“I felt like that part of our lineup we had a little more swing and miss and less contact,” Cohen said after a 8-1 victory against the University of Alabama at Birmingham in an elimination game on June 3, 2012. “The thing about (Pollorena) is I know he is going to make contact. He is very good athlete, he can bunt, and he can move the ball around.”
National analysts said the Starkville Regional may be the most difficult of the 16 regional tournaments in the 64-team NCAA tournament field. By adding up all the teams’ Rating Percentage Indexes, the regional has by far the highest-ranked teams. The Nashville Regional, which is being hosted by Vanderbilt University, is second.
With such a competitive group of teams, physical errors and mental mistakes could provide an edge. That’s why all of the players will have to block out the excitement of the moment and crowds of as many as 15,000 and treat it like just another weekend.
“Some handle pressure better than others, (and) the best teams are ones that can handle that pressure, like (three time College World Series finalist) South Carolina has,” Fitt said. “A lot of stat heads believe there is no such thing as a clutch player or coach, but I just don’t buy that. When you define ‘clutch’, that’s handling pressure better than others. That’s a skill.”
USA coach Mark Calvi learned how to manage in the postseason by spending six seasons as pitching coach at the University of South Carolina for then-head coach Ray Tanner. In 2010, Calvi’s pitching staff had a 2.15 ERA in seven College World Series games and led the Gamecocks to the national championship. The team’s ERA was nearly a point lower than the next best team in Omaha, Neb.
“You can’t argue with success, but everyone needs to be themselves,” Calvi said. “I’ve never sat in the dugout and thought, ‘What would coach Tanner do here’, but I found myself talking to a player and then said afterwards, ‘Man, I just sounded like Ray right there’.”
The competitiveness of the regional has forced all four teams to go with their ace pitchers first. Of the 16 regionals that start today, the Starkville Regional is the only one where all four teams are using their best pitcher and aren’t saving anything for Saturday.
“You want the best (pitching) matchup for game one because if you win game one, it does change the nature of the tournament for you,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “If you win that first game you’ve allowed yourself a possible three-game set. Everybody in this tournament is trying to win game one.”
Of the 16 schools that advanced out regional play, 13 of those teams won the first game of their regional tournament, and 10 of those 13 went on to sweep in three games.
Some clubs like UCA (39-20), which survived five straight elimination games to win the Southland Conference tournament, will stay with the lineup and pitching strategy it used throughout the season.
“My biggest thing is to try not to get in the way of my players,” Central Arkansas coach Allen Gum said. “I’ve learned a long time ago that players have to do it. We have to let our guys relax and not deviate from what we’ve done all year.”
For Gum’s perspective, that winning mind-set, which includes a series victory in March at Dudy Noble, has worked so why stop now?
“We’ve had the courage to stick to our plan even in the middle of the season when things got rough on us,” Gum said. “We had to stick with what got us back to our great start to the season. There’s nothing that’s changed about the style of baseball we’re playing.”
For MSU, Cohen and pitching coach Butch Thompson have spent the season making sure their bullpen has been wisely and safely. While they won’t alter that approach and take risks in the postseason, a superior reliever like sophomore closer Jonathan Holder could beg his way onto the mound easier if No. 14 MSU finds itself in an elimination situation. Holder broke the school record with 16 saves this season and has a 1.00 ERA, but he never has been used on four consecutive days. He also never has been used three days in a row, which he could be asked to do this weekend.
“That really becomes a crystal ball question based on so many factors,” Cohen said. “If you’re asking if Jonathan Holder will pitch three days in a row to win a regional? Yeah, depending on health, that’ll probably happen.
“Regionals are difficult no matter what, and that’s why you see upsets. I don’t know how (any game) could be an upset in this one.”
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