Tough day for Bulldogs in Saturday loss to Hogs
There didn't seem to be much fight for No. 2 Mississippi State on Friday night against No. 1 Arkansas but the Bulldogs showed some early on Saturday.
In the first inning of the first game, State trailed 3-0 but flipped the script on Saturday with a 3-0 lead, then MSU'S defense made critical mistakes that haunted it.
Arkansas jumped on those mistakes with two outs in the third and fifth innings and then held the Bulldogs down the rest of the way to take an 11-5 win and the series.
“I'll be honest with you, it's embarrassing getting beat at home,” MSU'S Tanner Allen said. “We have such a great fan base and such a great program and we take pride at winning at home and so far that hasn't happened this weekend but the weekend's not over. That's the number one team in the country for a reason. They've got some great players that can pitch the ball. I feel like we beat ourselves (Saturday).”
The Bulldogs entered the weekend with the best pitching staff in the country statistically. They had surrendered just 12 home runs in the first 21 games, had an earned run average hovering around 2.00 and were hard to touch a week ago against LSU.
The first two days of the this series have humbled MSU. After giving up three home runs and 10 hits in a 8-2 loss on Friday night, the Bulldogs got ripped for four more home runs on Saturday and 13 hits against a hot-hitting Hog team.
Will Bednar went five innings, gave up six hits five runs with four earned and struck out 10 batters with just one walk, but head coach Chris Lemonis and his MSU team will be asking “what if” following his five frames.
In the third inning leading 3-0, Rowdey Jordan had a fly ball to center with two outs that he couldn't find in the sun and a run scored. It was even worse in the fifth inning as State watched a bloop hit fall in right with two outs followed by a miscommunication on a shallow pop up in left. Christian Franklin made the Bulldogs pay with a threerun homer and made it 5-4 Arkansas and MSU was sinking from there.
“It's a windy day and we lose two fly balls and it kind of sparks them and gives them momentum,” Lemonis said. “It's not an excuse. We've got to catch them and we've caught them all year. I think those are the first two we haven't caught all year and it ended up being very costly. The errors were awful. I thought (Bednar) pitched really good. They had no momentum until we gave them something both times.”
State was able to tie right after that inning on Allen's solo homer but there were no more runs scored by the Bulldogs the rest of the day. Meanwhile, Arkansas scored three more runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh with a 75-minute rain delay sandwiched in between to put the game away.
Brandon Smith had a disappointing appearance as he came in during a tie game in the sixth. Smith gave up four hits and five runs with two walks and two strikeouts. Carlisle Koestler pitched three solid innings giving up three hits, one run, one walk and four strikeouts, but Kevin Kopps was the biggest pitcher for Arkansas with four innings, two hits, one walk and seven strikeouts to keep MSU out of it.
“I thought we were good off their starter and I thought we were good in the middle of the game,” Lemonis said. “We went to one of our better bullpen arms and they went to theirs. Ours didn't pitch very well and theirs pitched really well. The ball was up for us today for some of our guys and they made us pay for it.”
State (17-6, 2-3 SEC) has its most pivotal moment of the young season coming up today. The Bulldogs are trying to avoid an early season sweep in the ultracompetitive Southeastern Conference against the Razorbacks at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Allen has been in this position before and he knows the importance of today's game.
“We've got to keep playing no matter what happens,” Allen said. “This is the SEC. This is the hardest league in the world of college baseball. There is no time to pout, whine and feel bad for yourself. This is probably a good thing. To be honest with you, we've been told how great we were and some of our guys feel like we can just roll up to the field and we're going to win. Not in this league.
“You've got to bring it every single day. We've got some learning to do, but there's a big day (today) and we're ready for it.”