HOOVER, Ala. — There’s one baseball team in the Southeastern Conference nobody wants to face, and nearly everybody knows that school wears maroon and white.
No. 24 Mississippi State University earned its fifth victory against a top-25 opponent in its past seven days Wednesday when it upset No. 2 LSU 3-2 on day two of the SEC tournament at Regions Park.
MSU’s series sweep of the University of Kentucky, its win against the University of Arkansas in the first round of the SEC tournament, and its victory against SEC champion LSU show this team is ready for postseason play.
“There’s a reason they lead our league in earned run average and pretty much every pitching category,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri, whose club slipped to 42-15. “They have great arms and lots of them. They only give you a couple of chances to beat you in every game.”
Junior right-hander Chris Stratton (11-1), who is projected to be a first-round pick in this year’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, allowed five hits and two earned runs in six innings to become MSU’s first 11-game winner since Bobby Reed won 15 games in 1990.
“That (MSU) team is hot right now,” LSU first baseman Matson Katz said. “We’ve had that look when we got on a roll and won this tournament two years ago.”
MSU (36-21) extended its winning streak with its 14th victory in its past 18 games against SEC competition. MSU is 22-19 against top 100 teams this season.
“It doesn’t matter what I think or our coaches think because our players think they are on a roll,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “I’m not trying to be smart, but as long as our kids feel that way, that’s what’s important. They feel like they can beat anybody in the country.”
In a contrast of styles, top-seeded LSU hoped to see a lot of pitchers get work Wednesday, while MSU counted on Stratton on short rest.
Before the game began, LSU received its trophy for winning the outright SEC championship. It then used seven pitchers to try to end MSU’s streak. It also made fundamental baserunning mistakes that limited its chances to score. The Tigers had a runner thrown out at third base on a perfectly thrown center field assist by Hunter Renfroe. They also ran themselves out of the fifth inning when catcher Mitch Slauter threw out Katz trying to steal second.
Stratton added to LSU’s struggles by earning his 10th quality start of the season, and the 19th for the Bulldogs. In two appearances against LSU this season, Stratton has allowed nine hits and three earned runs and has struck out 25 in 14 2/3 innings.
“(Stratton) just doesn’t get into patterns,” Katz said. “He works both sides of the plate as a hard thrower but with very distinct but deceiving offspeed stuff. He’s got a very bright future.”
Said Mainieri, “We knew going into the game there just wouldn’t be any margin for error with Stratton because he’s really good. We’ve seen him three years now, and that’s the fourth time he’s pitched against us. I’m about ready for that kid to go into professional baseball so I don’t have to see him anymore.”
Despite knowing LSU would be aggressive early in counts, Stratton still recorded eight strikeouts to move into third all-time in MSU history with 275. Stratton passed Matt Ginter, B.J. Wallace, and Paul Maholm in the win.
“The plan by everybody this year has been to swing early in counts so you don’t risk a strikeout, but what I did to counter that was to throw out of the zone on purpose,” Stratton said. “They simply chased it every time.”
After LSU starting pitcher Aaron Nola dominated MSU for two perfect innings with three strikeouts, Adam Frazier and Brent Brownlee provided back-to-back RBI singles at the top of the order to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.
“It was tempting to leave Aaron in there for a while the way he was throwing, but we had already decided on our plan for this game and we weren’t going to deviate from that,” Mainieri said.
With the game tied at 2, MSU took the final lead in the sixth. Slauter capped a nine-pitch at-bat with double right center. Demarcus Henderson continued his tear with an RBI single to right center.
“It was a tough adjustment for me last year when great pitchers in this league would make adjustments to go to offspeed,” Henderson said. “I’m not satisfied yet because I know I still have a long way to go.”
MSU (36-21) will face fourth-seeded Kentucky (42-15) today in a third-round matchup. The game will start 30 minutes after the completion of the 9:30 a.m. elimination game between ninth-seeded Ole Miss (35-23) and LSU.
“The kids are playing with confidence. That is the key,” Cohen said. “The main thing is success. When you win, you feel good about yourself and you can’t wait to get to the ballpark the next day.”
After denying Kentucky a potential SEC regular-season championship last weekend in Starkville, Cohen will get a chance to knock Kentucky out of the winners’ bracket and earn a bye for Friday. Cohen won his only league title as coach at Kentucky.
“Kentucky flat out scares you to death, and that goes for any coach,” Cohen said. “They do not want to lose four in a row to us.”
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