STARKVILLE — Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis knew his players understood why he called a Monday team meeting earlier this week to share that pitching coach Scott Foxhall had been let go.
Still, it didn’t make the news any easier to hear.
“Fox is a lifelong friend,” Lemonis said Friday night following the Bulldogs’ 6-2 loss to No. 6 Arkansas in game No. 1 of the weekend Southeastern Conference series. “It felt like the time and moment. He is an unbelievable pitching coach. We won a national championship together. We have had a really tough two years on the mound and just trying to spark these guys to the finish.
During that meeting, Lemonis said the team sat, talked and figured out how they would move forward to focus on the Razorbacks. Though Friday’s game ended in a loss, MSU’s fifth-consecutive in conference play dating back to the Auburn series, its pitchers did what it could to keep the Bulldogs in the game.
Friday starter Cade Smith struck out eight over his six innings, allowing two, two-run homers, one from Jace Bohrofen in the first to put Arkansas up 2-0 and another by Brady Slavens in the sixth to put the Razorbacks up 4-2.
“I thought Cade was really good,” Lemonis said. “(He) threw pitches for strikes and competed all night long.”
Cole Cheatham followed that up by allowing two earned runs in 2 2/3 innings, though both came with two outs in the ninth. And KC allowed one hit and struck out one batter in his short appearance.
“They have been great,” Lemonis said of his pitching staff. “Obviously it has been a tough week in some ways, but they have moved past it. They are fighting, competing and trying to do everything they can. They worked really hard and we had some guys give us some really good innings tonight.”
No MSU pitchers were made available to the media following the game. And it wouldn’t have mattered what MSU’s pitchers did Friday because its offense managed just two hits, both coming from junior outfielder Colton Ledbetter.
The Bulldogs had ample opportunities to take control of Friday’s game, walking eight times, getting hit by pitch twice but left nine men on base. They got within a run in the third on an RBI single by Ledbetter, tied the game in the fifth when David Mershon scored on a wild pitch but were never able to find the go-to hit to get back in the game once Arkansas retook the lead in the next half-inning.
“It’s frustrating,” Ledbetter said of MSU’s offense. “Trying to get those guys in and do the job. It is just frustrating.”
In the final two games of this weekend’s series, beginning with tomorrow’s game No. 2 at Dudy Noble Field (6 p.m./ESPN2), the majority of the focus will still be on the Bulldogs’ pitchers.
Lemonis declined to name Saturday’s starter, though said it would be someone MSU has pitched recently (meaning Landon Gartman, Colby Holcombe or Jurrangelo Cijntje). And while the long-term future of who will coach that group remains in the air, the immediate fix, according to Lemonis, is a full coaching staff effort.
“(Kyle) Cheese(brough) was a catcher, I have caught and been with pitchers,” Lemonis said. “We sit and talk in here all day long, so it has kind of been a whole staff thing.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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