MSU seeks success on the road at LSU
It’s a small sample size, but so far this season, the road has been unkind to Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs have played two true road series this year. They were swept at Southern Miss to start the season and lost two of three at Missouri last weekend.
Now, with a three-game road test at No. 21 LSU beginning tonight at 7 p.m., Mississippi State is on a mission to show it can be victorious on someone else’s turf.
“We’ve got to go out and prove that we can win a series on the road,” MSU interim head coach Gary Henderson said. “We have to prove that to ourselves.”
A series win at LSU would be a huge boost for State (13-13, 1-5). After winning just one of their first six Southeastern Conference games, the Bulldogs are off to their worst start in SEC play since 2008.
To his team’s credit, Henderson insists MSU isn’t down on itself. Henderson believes his club is showing signs of fight despite all the early adversity.
“I thought we competed really well (last weekend),” Henderson said. “We played 26 innings in the last two days (at Missouri) and obviously, other than the ninth inning (Sunday), I thought our competitiveness was outstanding. We got 33 hits over the course of the weekend so that was certainly a step in the right direction over the previous weekend. Overall, the pitching was very good. We went 10.2 of one earned run out of the bullpen (Sunday). I think you’ll take that anytime you can get it. We had two solid starts on the weekend and some guys got some hits, so it was good.”
Despite the positives that came from last weekend, Henderson
had a plea to his team after Sunday’s game. It was a message for the Bulldogs to take with them moving forward.
“The message was that you have to earn it,” Henderson said. “No one gives anything to you. To earn it means a lot of things at different points in time. Specifically, outs need to be outs like in the ninth inning (on Sunday at Missouri). You have to keep your poise. You have to play hard and you have to run hard.
“Every pop up needs to be a double in your mind. You have to execute pitches. You have to turn double plays when given the opportunity. We just needed to make outs be outs in the ninth inning (Sunday). If we would have done that, we would have won the game, but we didn’t do it. In some respects, it’s a learning process. We’ve got to do a better job late in the game and I think we will
moving forward.”
MSU’s next chance to heed its coach’s advice comes tonight. If ever there was an ideal place for a team to prove itself on the road, it might just be at LSU.
Henderson is ready to see how the Bulldogs respond against the Tigers (16-10,
3-3).
“(LSU) will be good and they’ll be well-coached,” Henderson said. “They have talented players. It’s a great game environment in Baton Rouge. Their fans are fantastic. They are into it and knowledgeable. It’ll be a great opportunity for our kids.”