Bulldogs set for Frisco test
Mississippi State isn't perfect at this stage of the game, but the Diamond Dawgs are trying to find themselves through the wins instead of taking setbacks.
That's what happened on Tuesday night in Pearl as State faced a big nonconference test in Southern Miss. Trailing 9-6 heading into the eighth inning, the Bulldogs rallied for a fourrun frame and Nate Dohm was able to slam the door shut in the ninth for a 10-9 win.
The victory covered up a few of MSU'S own issues to work through, but the most important takeaway was that head coach Chris Lemonis' team just found a way. It's not always going to be easy, but good teams figure out how to overcome and that's what happened with the Bulldogs.
“Our kids just keep fighting,” Lemonis said. “We're not perfect right now. We're walking too many, we're making some errors, but they're competing. As we grow as a team, hopefully we can clean some of that stuff up.”
There have been some issues early on in the season for the Bulldogs. They are coming off of a losing season for the first time since 2015 and blew a nine-run lead to VMI in the opening weekend to lose a Saturday game.
The following Tuesday, MSU lost 11-5 to Louisiana Monroe and also had a brutal Friday performance against Arizona State that led to a blowout loss. The Bulldogs responded with two really good games against the Sun Devils before falling back to old habits with an 11-walk night against the
Fr., BHP
Golden Eagles.
Dohm was one of the bright spots on the mound. He came and with Tyson
Hardin and both players combined to surrender just one earned run in 4.1 innings to help get the third-straight win of the year.
It's now time for another challenge for MSU and it enters this weekend's Frisco Classic in Texas with a little momentum. The Bulldogs have shown some explosive offense in the early going with a .315 batting average, 15 home runs and 19 doubles. Samford transfer Colton Ledbetter leads the country with his 19 RBI as he bats .400, has 14 hits, three doubles, three home runs and a triple. Amani Larry has a .371 average, Bryce Chance is batting .357, Luke Hancock .333 and Slate Alford .324.
Things have been a little more of a struggle on the mound and defensively. MSU is climbing up the leader board in a bad way with 59 walks this year and the defense has committed 16 errors.
The weekend rotation will look a bit different for a thirdstraight week as freshman Jurrangelo Cijntje will make his second career start for the Bulldogs tonight against Ohio State while Graham Yntema starts on Saturday and Landon Gartman on Sunday.
Today's matchup with Cijntje will be against a talented Ohio State lefty in Isaiah Coupet, who is 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA in two starts. He's walked just one batter, surrendered one run and struck out 18.
Lemonis is glad his team has a little confidence going into that one.
“It's huge,” Lemonis said about the Southern Miss win. “It gives us some momentum going into the weekend. We've got a really tough matchup on Friday night. (Ohio State's) got a really good arm throwing against us. It gives us some momentum and makes for a good feel for our ball club and makes for cleaner practices. Hopefully, we can build on it.”
Today's game one against Ohio State will be at 6 p.m. at Riders Field. MSU will play the NCAA Runners Up of Oklahoma on Saturday at 1 p.m. and California on Sunday at 11 a.m. Bulldog fans will have to get a subscription to D1baseball for a weekend pass, but can get 15% off with the promo code MSUFC.