STARKVILLE — It’s a well-known fact the Mississippi State baseball team has walked away from Southeastern Conference weekends thinking it could’ve won one or two more games.
This wasn’t one of those weekends.
In the longest game in the four-year John Cohen era, MSU completed its first sweep of the 2012 season Saturday with a 2-1 victory against the University of Tennessee in 14 innings at Dudy Noble Field.
MSU (24-16, 8-10 Southeastern Conference) sent the season-high crowd across the street to the spring football game at Davis Wade Stadium happy after a wild pitch by closer Nick Blount.
The victory marked the eighth straight victory for MSU against Tennessee (22-18, 7-11), and ninth in the past 10 games.
The Bulldogs accomplished the feat, which Cohen and the Bulldogs hope catapults them on a second-half run, behind stellar pitching and defense.
“You’re hoping wins like this are the ones that move you forward because we still have a lot of season left,” Cohen said. “This is still one of the most dangerous clubs, and everybody in that dugout believes that.”
Tennessee scored just four runs, had one extra-base hit, and hit just .177 in the series.
“I really can’t say enough about our pitching staff this weekend,” Cohen said. “They did an amazing job of competing their tails off. The pitchers commanded the strike zone and didn’t back down from the challenge.”
MSU used seven pitchers Saturday in what Cohen stressed would be a bullpen game. Sophomore right-hander Evan Mitchell drew his second pitching start this season. Ross Mitchell worked the Bulldogs out of a tight spot in the fourth inning and was lifted during a similar situation in the sixth. Jonathan Holder and Taylor Stark followed before giving way to Caleb Reed.
Reed, a senior preseason All-American, worked around two hits and one walk in 3 1/3 innings of shutout work.
Tennessee’s inability to bunt — two players were retired at the plate — proved critical. Ben Bracewell, MSU’s opening night starter, worked MSU out of a jam in the 11th before Luis Pollorena (2-0) threw three innings of shutout relief to get the win.
“We feel like we have the deepest bullpen in the country,” Pollorena said. “We have around seven guys out of the pen that throw 90 mph, and guess what, I’m not one of them, so we can match anybody.”
Most of the Bulldogs’ offense Saturday was produced by an unlikely source, as freshman Matthew Britton had his first three-hit day in a MSU uniform. The infielder from Cullman, Ala., reached base four times and had two RBIs. He entered the game hitting .110.
Down 2-0, the Bulldogs pulled even in the sixth on a two-run single by Britton.
“It’s sure hard not to get down when you’re not hitting but just got to keep working on staying toward the middle of the field,” Britton said. “Everybody has been supportive of me and telling me I was crushing balls. It was hard to believe them no doubt.”
The only run Britton scored was in the 14th, when he sprinted home on a pitch that hit the backstop of Dudy Noble Field with senior Brent Brownlee at the plate.
“Right when I saw the ball get passed the catcher I knew we’d won,” Britton said “I was going no matter what and knew I could make it.”
Junior right-hander Kendall Graveman allowed just three hits in a 7-1 victory Friday that clinched a series victory.
Graveman (3-2) allowed just one run in a game where Tennessee hit just four balls out of the infield.
“He commanded the strike zone and threw 21 fastballs at 90 mph or better, so he’s a guy that came in here at 82-84 on the radar gun,” Cohen said. “When you do all those things and work so hard in between his starts, you just have to cheer for him.”
Redshirt freshman first baseman Wes Rea had two RBI doubles in back-to-back innings to give Graveman the cushion he needed.
Rea’s RBI double off the glove of third baseman Zach Luther answered the Volunteers only run. Rea then found the base of the left-center field wall on his next at-bat when he powered a breaking ball by starting pitcher Robbie Kidd to give MSU a 6-1 lead.
Rea tied a career-high with three RBIs, matching the previous outputs at Dudy Noble Field against Penn State University (March 6) and Vanderbilt University (April 6).
“Coach Cohen has said he’s going to do something to fix it by bringing these fences in,” Rea joked after the game. “I bunted a couple of times tonight, so it felt good to swing away at some balls in the zone tonight.”
MSU will take on Southern Mississippi at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Trustmark Park. It will then returns to SEC play with another home series against the University of Mississippi. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Friday, at 2 p.m. Saturday, and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
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