Bulldogs stun Seminoles
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Elijah MacNamee and the Mississippi State Bulldogs were down to their final strike – not just of Saturday’s game, but of their season. A trip back north
Starkville from the to Tallahassee Regional seemed imminent. That’s when one big swing from Elijah MacNamee sent a resounding message. The Bulldogs aren’t dead yet.
MacNamee drilled a walkoff three-run home run to keep the Bulldogs alive in the NCAA Tournament. MSU topped host school and No. 7 national seed Florida State 3-2 to earn the right to keep playing. The Seminoles were eliminated on their own field.
“I can’t think,” MacNamee said in reaction to his gamewinning shot.
No one could blame MacNamee’s shock. For eight and a half innings, Mississippi State (32-26) was lifeless offensively. Florida State (43-19), behind starter Drew Parrish, held the Bulldogs in check.
Parrish was outstanding. The sophomore left-hander limited State to just three hits through the first eight innings of the ballgame. Only one Bulldog even reached second base in that span.
“He controlled three different pitches wherever he wanted to all game,” MSU centerfielder Jake Mangum said of Parrish. “He’d throw his changeup, curveball or fastball at any time. That was a terrific start by him.”
Not even a two-and-a-
half-hour rain delay following the eighth inning could knock out Parrish. Florida State already had a 2-0 lead at the time, earning both runs off MSU starting pitcher Ethan Small who was solid through six innings.
The Seminoles scored their first run in the third. Nick Derr had a one-out double for FSU, then took third on a wild pitch and scored when MSU catcher Marshall Gilbert threw to third on the play and the baseball sailed into left field.
Florida State added an insurance run in the fifth. With runners at first and second and two outs, Rhett Aplin singled to center to push home J.C. Flowers.
That score held until the thunder, lightning and rains came following the eighth.
In the ninth, Riley Self hurled his third scoreless inning of relief to keep Florida State at bay, then MSU set the stage for MacNamee’s heroics in the bottom half of the frame.
The rally began with Florida State’s decision to return Parrish to the mound. The southpaw had already thrown 109 pitches and sat through the entire rain delay. Yet Seminoles head coach Mike Martin allowed Parrish to try and finish things out and send the Bulldogs home.
“We wanted him to have the ball because he wanted to have the ball, his teammates wanted him to have the ball and if I had it to do over again, I’d make the same decision,” Martin said.
Martin and even MSU players insisted Parrish still seemed to be the same pitcher after the delay. The results Parrish got said otherwise.
Parrish started the ninth inning by walking Mangum. He then got Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen to pop out to move Florida State within an out of victory, but then walked the tying run on base when he issued a free pass to Hunter Stovall.
That brought up MacNamee with two out and two on. He got down in the count 1-2, then MacNamee got a changeup and blasted it over the left-field wall and off the scoreboard at Dick Howser Stadium.
“I blacked out,” Small said of his reaction when he realized what MacNamee had done.
A wild celebration ensued, and while the Bulldogs partied, the Seminoles were left stunned.
“(MSU) hadn’t made contact on (Parrish’s) changeup all day long,” Martin said. “He dominated. He made a great pitch and it got hit out of the ballpark. It’s something that you just have to look at and say, ‘That’s baseball.’
“The great game that we play can be cruel. This one was certainly cruel.”
While Florida State now licks its wounds, MacNamee’s homer gives MSU more baseball today in Tallahassee. The Bulldogs will play Samford at 11 a.m. today. Jacob Billingsley is expected to start on the mound today for Mississippi State.
It’s a chance MSU almost didn’t get. However the game of baseball affords teams 27 outs per game. The Bulldogs needed every one of them Saturday, but now they’re moving on.
“If you’re positive, relentless and that message doesn’t change, the kids buy in and you always give yourselves a chance,” MSU head coach Gary Henderson said.