STARKVILLE — A long-standing tradition at Mississippi State University is the player voted pitcher of the week gets to park in a spot roughly 30 feet from the Dudy Noble Field playing surface.
After a dominating nine-inning performance Thursday night in a game MSU desperately needed, the parking spot for Chris Stratton’s black Chevy truck is likely secure again for another week.
The junior right-hander allowed just four hits and one run in a 117-pitch effort that included 10 strikeouts in a 2-1, 11-inning victory against the University of Tennessee in the ESPNU Southeastern
Conference game of the week.
“It’s a responsibility to pitch the opener of every series, but this is what I began playing baseball for,” Stratton said. “It’s fun. I love being the guy my team can rely on so we can get wins.”
In front of scouts from at least 15 professional baseball teams, Stratton had command of a 93 mph fastball, an 81 mph changeup, a hard-breaking curveball, and a diving slider he normally reserved for strike three.
“It’s fun, exciting, and a pleasure to catch him knowing he’ll hopefully play in the big leagues some day and saying, ‘Hey, I caught that guy back when,’ ” MSU junior catcher Mitch Slauter said.
Thursday was the sixth time Stratton has gone to the mound in the opening game of a SEC weekend series and has yet to lose a game. The Tupelo native has a 2.78 ERA in SEC play this season, and MSU is 3-3 in those games. The Bulldogs are 3-7 in all other league games.
“You can’t say enough things about Chris Stratton with the amount of attention he’s gotten and the build-up for a game like this tonight,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “We had a pre-production meeting with ESPN (Thursday) and it felt like we talked about Chris Stratton for 30 minutes, and boy did he live up to it.”
MSU (22-16, 6-10 SEC) found a way to win its second extra-inning game — fifth in walk-off fashion — in front of a crowd of 3,725 at Dudy Noble Field. Slauter’s shallow fly ball with the bases-loaded scored pinch runner Luis Pollorena to end the game.
The walk-off punch was just Slauter’s second RBI since March 18. The catcher is normally focused on the responsibility of handling Stratton, who is projected to be selected in the first three rounds of the 2012 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft this summer.
Tennessee starting pitcher Steven Godley nearly matched Stratton in every way, allowing just one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings. The junior was pulled after reaching 100 pitches.
MSU scored first when nine-hole hitter Sam Frost stroked a RBI single to right field that scored freshman outfielder Tyler Fullerton in the fifth inning. The single ended a 1-for-25 slump for the junior from Hoover, Ala.
After Tennessee (22-16, 7-9) tied the game in the eighth, MSU outfielder C.T. Bradford made the game-saving defensive play as he ranged to his left to make a catch and then in one motion threw
out a runner at home to end the threat in the 11th.
Bradford has battled a partially separated shoulder for nearly the past two months, but made up for his 0-for-4 night with the throw from shallow center field.
“You almost expect C.T. to make that play all the time because he just does it every single time,” Cohen said. “The tough part is the tag because the ball is skipping off the surface.”
MSU senior preseason All-America closer Caleb Reed (1-5) got his
first victory since a 4-3 win at the University of Florida in the 2011 Super Regional series on June 11.
“Our kids are fighting so hard that you want them to have success,” Cohen said.
Junior Kendall Graveman (2-2, 3.25) is scheduled to start at 6:30 tonight in game two. Tennessee is scheduled to counter with freshman Robbie Kidd (2-0, 3.19).
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