STARKVILLE — Chris Stratton was in the zone Friday night.
So much so that late in the game he admittedly had no idea how many strikeouts he had at LSU in one of the most dominant pitching performance in Mississippi State baseball history by punching out a career-high 17 batters.
“I was sitting in the dugout and (LSU) shows the strikeouts of their guy and I look out there and thought ‘dang, he’s got a lot tonight and this game is moving along pretty quick’,” Stratton said in a phone interview Monday. “I think it was one of my teammates who said ‘dude do you realize how many you got?’ and I had to respond by saying I really didn’t.”
Monday, Stratton netted Louisville Slugger national player of the Week and SEC pitcher of the week honors while also being named the SEC’s co-pitcher of the week by SEBaseball.com.
Stratton (4-0, 2.12) held LSU to a run on four hits and .138 hitting, fanning all nine LSU starters, two Tiger batters three times each and recorded a trio of three-strikeout innings. At one stretch he retired 16 consecutive batters, 11 via the strikeout. All this was in his first start of the 2012 season after coming out of the bullpen in four previous appearances.
Stratton was given the start after opening night starter Ben Bracewell was scratched as the redshirt-sophomore is still dealing with soreness in his pitching elbow.
“It was a huge step forward for Chris and probably one of the most impressive pitching performances in Mississippi State baseball history,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “It’s something we’ve seen and waiting for him to do every weekend.”
After all these impressive statistics, the most frustrating aspects of Friday night’s contest at No. 13 LSU was the Bulldogs (15-7, 1-2 in Southeastern Conference) didn’t get the victory and fell 3-2 in 10 innings.
“The greedy element of us thinks we were 6-7 pitches away from two wins if not a sweep and we’re coming home with just one victory,” Cohen said.
Both Stratton and LSU ace pitcher Kevin Gausman left the game to standing ovations at Alex Box Stadium after 8-2/3 innings of mound work.
The 17 strikeouts by Stratton ranks as the most in the SEC this season and the most by a Bulldog pitcher since B.J. Wallace rang up 19 punchouts against Nicholls State in the 1992 NCAA Mideast Regional at Dudy Noble Field. Stratton leads Southeastern Conference pitchers with 44 strikeouts and the MSU staff with 29.2 innings pitched. He earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors in 2010 after tossing seven innings of three-hit, seven-strikeout ball in a season-ending win at LSU.
“My teammates were kidding me that I obviously went to the wrong school because of how much I succeed pitching in that ballpark at Alex Box (Stadium),” Stratton said. “I just feel confident in how I match up with their lineup and was aggressive coming at them all night.”
While it’s still unknown if Bracewell will return to the mound this weekend when MSU hosts No. 3 Arkansas (19-2, 3-0 in SEC play), Stratton says he’d be fine with going back to the bullpen role to follow Bracewell on Friday night’s in conference play.
“I really don’t care because here’s the deal — you can’t keep a guy like Ben Bracewell out of our rotation because that guy has way too much talent and stuff,” Stratton said. “If the coaches think putting me back in the bullpen and starting Ben again helps us win games, I’ll take that every time. What people need to realize is we didn’t win on Friday and a small part of that was I couldn’t finish it out.”
Cohen called it “likely” the coaching staff would be handing the ball first to Stratton as he’ll likely be matched up with Arkansas junior right-handed ace DJ Baxendale (5-0, 2.30) this weekend.
“You have to constantly evaluate things just like any coaching staff in America would do and Friday night is in that evaluation,” Cohen said. “So when you say that — my goodness, Chris Stratton was good. There’s nine more weekends in this league and he has to be close to that every weekend.”
In what Cohen has talked about as the turning point moment of Stratton’s pitching career, the 6-foot-3, 198-pound prospect had a 1-1 record with a 2.18 ERA pitching for the 2011 Cape Cod League champion Harwich (Mass.) Mariners. The Cape Cod League is recognized as the best summer wood-bat league for college prospects with hundreds of draft scouts evaluating talents for the entire two-month season.
“I feel like I’ve just been there before no matter what happens while I’m on the mound,” Stratton said. “I think as a younger pitcher I was thrilled to be there and every time I’d strike out a batter then I’d emotionally be sky high. I still love striking people out but I have to focus on the long term here now. That’s what leadership is.”
Stratton significantly improved his professional stock in his draft-eligible year where scouts are incredibly high on the right-hander as possibly one of the first right-handed arms taken in the SEC this summer.
“I’m quite high on him (because) he’s got a big arm, with a fastball that reaches the mid-90s and a really hard slider in the mid-80s and a much improved changeup,” Baseball America national college baseball writer Aaron Fitt said. “He still needs to prove to me that he has the makeup to thrive in a starting role over a full season, but Friday was a great start. If he maintains a high level of performance as a starter, I could see him making a run at the first round.”
What is clear about the Bulldogs program is in order to compete for the Western Division in the 2012 season, they’ll have to continue to pitch as well as they have in the first weekend for the next two months.
“We have a debate every week in how to work our guys and we recognize it’s a, I guess, problem that everybody in America would love to have,” Cohen said.
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