STARKVILLE — With the game tied, Daryl Norris stood in the on-deck circle in the bottom of the ninth inning shocked at the reliever who was entering the game to face him.
Not only had Vanderbilt University left-hander Kevin Ziomek struggled Friday night in his start against Mississippi State University, but Norris also had a hit against Ziomek in his first at-bat in nearly four weeks.
He didn’t waste his chance Sunday.
Norris laced a 1-0 pitch from Ziomek for a double to right-center field to score Mitch Slauter, who reached on a walk, to lift MSU to an 8-7 victory at Dudy Noble Field.
“I was sitting on a fastball and just waiting on it,” Norris said. “The fact that (Ziomek) also pitched Friday night really helped me there. It made me more prepared for what he was going to throw. I am still a little slow on the bases (due to his knee cap injury), but at the plate, I am fine.”
Norris turned a fastball from Ziomek into a two-out double to help the Bulldogs (20-12, 5-7 Southeastern Conference) win their first conference series of the year, and their first series against Vanderbilt since 2005.
It series victory was MSU’s first at Dudy Noble Field since it swept Auburn on March 27-28, 2011.
“We needed that win really bad. It was a team effort,” Norris said. “We had a lot of guys picking each other up. Down four runs, we didn’t lose confidence. We knew we had a lot of baseball left. It was a matter of staying there and continuing to battle. This was a very big series win.”
Norris went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored to lift his series total to six hits (one double) and four RBIs. After being sidelined with a kneecap injury for the past month, Norris sparked the Bulldogs and raised his batting average to a team-best .409.
“The story for the game is we go down four and the kids keep battling,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “You can’t say enough about Daryl Norris.”
On a less-than-healthy leg, Norris gutted out three games in a critical series even though Cohen was said he “may be weeks away” from being able to fully contribute again.
“He was at second base when we scored him earlier in the game (and) you are just locked in on that knee and you are thinking, ‘Can he do this?’ ” Cohen said. “The things these players are doing are amazing. You could not be more proud of a group of guys who are playing hurt.”
Vanderbilt (13-19, 4-8) built a 4-0 lead with three runs in the third against All-America reliever Caleb Reed, who drew his first start since May 2010. The senior allowed five hits and four runs (three earned) in three innings. MSU used six pitchers, including the lefty-righty-lefty combination of Ross Mitchell, Taylor Stark, and Luis Pollorena (1-0) to finish the ninth.
“It was what you call a Johnny staff day,” Pollorena said.
The Bulldogs rallied with three runs in the third. A two-run single by Wes Rea was the big blow. MSU pulled even at 5 on a two-run single by Norris in the fifth.
In the seventh, Hunter Renfroe gave MSU a 7-6 lead with an RBI single.
In the ninth, Anthony Gomez touched Stark for a game-tying RBI single.
The series victory was MSU’s first in league play since the second-to-last week of last season at the University of Mississippi
“I don’t know if it was a must-win, but we definitely can’t be taking one game out of the weekend any more,” MSU sophomore pitcher Evan Mitchell said.
Wes Rea had a two-run, two-out single to left field in the fourth to cut into Vanderbilt’s lead. Norris would have been out at home by at least three steps, but catcher Spencer Navin dropped the ball. The run pulled MSU within 4-3.
MSU will play host to South Alabama at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. It will hit the road for more SEC play this weekend with a series at the University of South Carolina.
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