ATLANTA — The game plan worked to perfection.
The flawless play that saw the Mississippi State baseball team advance to the title game of the NCAA tournament”s Atlanta Regional continued Sunday, as MSU received its first complete-game of the season from left-hander Nick Routt and another early barrage of runs that led to a 7-3 win against Georgia Tech.
The Bulldogs (37-23) entered the weekend as the No. 3 seed in the regional after earning one of the tournament”s final at-large bids.
Now, MSU will head to the Super Regional round to face the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. Florida, which is 3-1 against MSU this season, rolled through its regional, beating the University of Miami 11-4 on Sunday.
The Bulldogs went undefeated in a regional or district tournament for the fourth time in program history.
Advancing to a Super Regional after going 0-2 in the Southeastern Conference tournament might have seemed unlikely to anyone outside of the program, but MSU coach John Cohen knew the turnaround was coming.
“When our kids came back from two full days off I just felt like we had a different club,” Cohen said. “I just felt like our kids were re-energized and our practices and preparation was just phenomenal. You”re just watching these kids going, ”We”re gonna have a chance to win a regional.” You don”t know if a ball is gonna bounce your way, and some did for us. You don”t know if the other team is gonna make mistakes and give you some things, but I knew we were gonna play well.”
MSU”s blueprint mirrored that of its 8-3 win against Austin Peay on Saturday: It took a lead of six runs or more before the fifth inning; it received a start of eight innings or more on the mound; and it played exemplary defense.
“Everything we wanted to do and everything we scripted out, almost everything, we did,” Cohen said, “That”s unusual in our game because a team as good as Georgia Tech many times won”t allow you to do the things you want to do. Every time one of those big left-handers in their lineup gets up, you”re scared to death they”re gonna lose one and change the game.”
Routt was the catalyst, allowing two earned runs on six hits in his longest outing since an eight-inning start against LSU in his freshman season. He struck out six, walked one, and retired the first nine he faced.
“I was really just working on throwing it in the strike zone,” said Routt, who recorded the fifth complete game of his career. “These Georgia Tech hitters were a lot different than Arkansas (whom he last faced in Hoover). They swung early in counts, obviously, trying to hit the home run. Thankfully, I had a good defense behind me and the ball bounced our way.”
Like he had for much of the season, Routt worked primarily with his fastball, relying on location instead of an array of pitches.
“It wasn”t anything crazy, just flat fastballs and we weren”t ready for it,” said Georgia Tech catcher Zane Evans, who hit a home run.
Like freshman Evan Mitchell on Saturday, Routt worked with a comfortable lead thanks mainly to Atlanta Regional MVP C.T. Bradford.
The freshman leadoff hitter went 3-for 5 with four RBIs and a run, delivering two-out, two-run hits in the second and third innings to give MSU a 6-0 lead.
“I”ve gone up there with the mind-set of making them throw as many pitches as I can and let my teammates see his arm slot and see timing, and it just worked out seeing it well,” said Bradford, who was 7-for-13 with five RBIs and two runs in the regional. Since MSU”s 0-for-2 run in the SEC tournament, Bradford is 10-for-21.
Cohen”s decision to move Bradford into the leadoff spot during the Florida series — a move that saw Nick Vickerson move to the cleanup role — has paid off nicely in the postseason.
“That was difficult because Vick had so many stolen bases and was having a lot of success with that,” Cohen said, “but we needed some RBI production in the middle, and we felt like Vick would do a better job in that position.
“Also, you could just see C.T. was growing and was just starting to command the strike zone as an offensive player. I didn”t want to shove him in that role too early. I wanted him to have a period of time where he could get used to playing college baseball, but we knew the minute before he stepped in our program he was gonna be a leadoff guy.”
Georgia Tech lost in a home NCAA regional for the third straight year. The Yellow Jackets had an uphill battle after defeating Austin Peay 12-2 earlier in the day. But facing a MSU team that had caught fire and sending freshman DeAndre Smelter to the mound for his first career start made earning the first of two wins against the Bulldogs a tall order.
Five errors that led to six unearned runs didn”t help the effort, but Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall didn”t blame the miscues on fatigue from playing in the heat in the afternoon. The five errors were the most the Yellow Jackets committed in a game since the 2009 NCAA regional.
For the season, Georgia Tech (42-21) made 84 errors and allowed 71 unearned runs, while its opponents made 70 and gave up 38.
“Our miscues in the field gave them extra opportunities to score and they capitalized,” Hall said. “I felt like Luke Bard (who pitched 4 1/3 innings of relief) really gave us a chance to hang in the game. He really pitched well. I really felt like the first couple of guys didn”t pitch bad.
“I felt like we just didn”t make the plays. I don”t think it was a case where we were tired or a step behind. We just didn”t do it. We made a couple of bad throws and it did us in.”
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