With Mississippi State clinging to a 4-2 lead in Wednesday’s SEC Tournament second-round matchup with Missouri, the Bulldogs were looking for a way to break the game open and pull away from the surging Tigers, who shocked the conference on Tuesday with an upset victory over Ole Miss.
In stepped Vytas Valincius.
The graduate student from Lockport, Ill., initiated a game-breaking spree of eight runs in the sixth inning with a solo home run and then provided the kicker with a three-run blast in the same inning to help send the Bulldogs to the third round of the SEC Tournament with a 12-2 run-rule victory over Missouri in seven innings.
Vytas’ two-homer sixth-inning was history-making for MSU. His solo shot broke the program record for team home runs in a single season with 104, and he did so with little warning. Valincius made his first plate appearance in the sixth already 0-for-2 against the Tigers’ bullpen with only three home runs on the season in his back pocket. Valincius said he had to make some changes with his approach after his first two appearances earlier in the game, and the gamble paid off big time for the No. 8-seeded Bulldogs.
“I think it was more of a ‘me’ thing,” Valincius said after the game. “The first two at-bats I was just not on time. I was just focusing on being on time, being early and then adjusting to whatever they throw. So it was just an adjustment I made.”
It was a solid day of baseball all-around for both Valincius’ on MSU roster. Vytas’ brother Tomas Valincius got the start on the mound and held the Tigers to five hits and just two runs (one earned) with eight strikeouts. Of course, Tomas couldn’t help but celebrate Vytas’ back-to-back blasts in the sixth.
“I was fired up,” Tomas said after the game. “He hit the first one early, and I got fired up. They told me to stop jumping because I didn’t realize how low the dugout was, but I was fired up for it. The second one, I was not as fired up because I used a lot of energy for the first one. It was cool. It was an awesome moment. I’ve never seen that before from him.”
Kam Durnin tagged Tomas for a first-inning solo home run, giving the Tigers a brief lead. Ryder Woodson answered in the second inning with a three-run blast to put MSU on top. Missouri struck again in the fifth inning with one run during a flyout, and Gehrig Frei responded in the bottom of the fifth with a one-run single to give the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead and set the stage for the sixth inning.
Along with Vytas’ two homers, Frei took a bases-loaded hit by pitch, Ace Reese was also walked with the bases loaded, Noah Sullivan smacked a single and Jacob Parker grounded out to each score one run.
Mississippi State (40-16) finished with eight hits, three of the home run variety. Wednesday was Tomas Valincius’ sixth start this season where he surrendered fewer than two earned runs.
“I was really encouraged by what I saw in the back part of the game. I thought our two-strike approach in the first three or four innings wasn’t what it needed to be,” MSU head coach Brian O’Connor said. “It seemed like to me a few of the players were trying to do too much. They weren’t on time. (Vytas) addressed that. He wasn’t on time to hit in his first two at-bats. He made an adjustment. That was great to see. And other guys were the same.
“I talked to the team in the dugout after the win and I said, listen, I know a lot of you haven’t been in championships before. Whether it’s this week or next weekend or the weekends after, you have to take a deep breath and be loose.”
This week in Hoover, Ala., the SEC Tournament has implemented an automatic ball-strike (ABS) challenge system, similar to the one used in the MLB, to allow batters to challenge a call by the umpire at the plate. Each team is given three challenges to use during a game in the tournament, and if a player’s challenge is successful then the team keeps its challenge. The Bulldogs went 2-for-2 on ABS challenges during Tuesday’s game.
The Bulldogs advance to play No. 1-seeded Georgia at 3 p.m. today in the quarterfinals. The winner of that game moves on to Saturday’s semifinals.
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