STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University baseball coach John Cohen is convinced his club gave the game away from third base.
From where fourth-year coach normally stands and paces during the game, Cohen watched his defense give up three errors not more than 20 yards from vantage point in the home dugout.
Two of those errors occurred in the same seventh inning, which allowed the University of Mississippi to even the weekend series with a 6-2 victory.
“There’s about five plays that we did not make and you’re not going to win any day in our league when you make the four or five blunders that we made,” Cohen said.
The momentum for Ole Miss’ seventh inning got started with a throwing error by sophomore Daryl Norris on a ground ball where he had to look the Rebels Will Allen back to second base. Norris uncorked a curveball to first baseman Wes Rea’s glove side causing Ole Miss freshman Austin Bousfield to be safe on the play.
Five pitches later Ole Miss’ Austin Anderson untied the score for good with a single down the right field line. Causing more havoc on the play was senior right fielder Brent Brownlee airmailing second baseman Matthew Britton for the cutoff throw and Norris’ inability to block the ball while getting down on both knees. The error by Norris, his second of the inning, allowed pinch runner Blake Newalu to easily make it 4-2 in favor of the visitors.
The final error loaded the bases and would eventually represent the final unearned run of the afternoon. Sam Frost, who had replaced Norris after the two errors in the 7th frame, pulled MSU first baseman off the bag on a routine throw across the diamond. However, with runners on first and second with two outs, the issue with Frost’s error is the throw may not have been necessary at all. MSU seemingly could’ve gotten out of the inning by Frost simply putting a foot on the third base bag after retrieving the ground ball by Ole Miss outfielder Preston Overbey.
“As deep as he was (in the infield) he’s thinking it would be bang-bang and simply didn’t realize the runner had just stopped running there,” Cohen said. “He didn’t see the guy so that’s my assumption because I haven’t talked to him yet.”
Saturday represented the seventh game this season that MSU (26-17, 9-11 in Southeastern Conference) has committed three errors during the 2012 season. The Bulldogs only reached that number of errors in five games last season during their NCAA Super Regional run.
Bradford’s injury status unclear after violent collision
MSU outfielders C.T. Bradford and Brent Brownlee had a violent collision in right-center field in the ninth inning of Saturday’s to Ole Miss leading to Bradford re-injuring his already ailing shoulder.
In the first batter of the Rebels’ ninth inning, Ole Miss infielder Blake Newalu stroked a high fly ball to right-centerfield. As both of the Bulldogs outfielders ran full speed to make the play, they collided leaving Bradford rolling around in pain and clutching his right shoulder as he checked out of the game.
“That will happen in some cases because most fans think you call the fly ball the minute it goes up but you don’t call it till you know you can get it,” Cohen said. “So when both guys are going full speed not sure they can get it, this can happen in a certain part of the field.”
The sophomore had to take himself out of the game and results of his condition were unknown at the end of the game. Brownlee, who is also dealing with a serious knee injury as well, was able to stay in the game.
Bradford had already suffered a separated right shoulder last month and the former Atlanta Regional most valuable player was evaluated in the MSU training room after the incident Saturday. Cohen told The Dispatch Saturday night he wasn’t going to know if Bradford would be available in the near future until the team doctors are able to evaluate an MRI scan of the shoulder.
“We’re hopeful it’s not as bad as it sounds but for some reason this year everything has been ultimately worse than it sounded,” Cohen said.
Bradford and Brownlee had already missed time during this season with various injuries and represent two of the four members of the opening night lineup to spend time on the disabled list.
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