HOOVER, Ala. — It’s almost as if Mississippi State University baseball coach John Cohen knew what would happen and couldn’t do anything to stop it.
The Bulldogs’ fourth-year coach had a strange fear a loss was coming before another game against the University of Kentucky.
“Kentucky flat out scares you to death, and that goes for any coach,” Cohen said Wednesday when evaluating his opponent. “But boy do they not want to lose four in a row to us.”
Those words turned out to be prophetic Thursday as No. 24 MSU fell to No. 11 Kentucky 5-1 on day three of the Southeastern Conference tournament before a crowd of 6,798 at Regions Park.
The victory marked Kentucky’s first in four games against MSU (36-22) this season, and stopped the Bulldogs’ streak of five straight victories against ranked teams in the league.
“I still think they are the best one through nine (batting order) in our league,” Cohen said. “We just didn’t have that little spark moment to get us going, and it’s hard to beat a top-10 ranked team four times in a row.”
Any discussion of MSU being a candidate to be a regional host site for next week’s NCAA tournament effectively ended with the loss, MSU’s first of the tournament. Kentucky earned a bye into the single-elimination semifinal round Saturday.
“There aren’t a lot of teams in our league that have won five SEC baseball games in a row this season, but mentally I think we were a little bit tired today,” Cohen said.
The last time MSU has won the SEC tournament after losing a game was 2001 when it rebounded from a loss to the University of South
Carolina to defeat the Gamecocks and LSU to take home the trophy.
Kentucky (43-15) pounded starting pitcher Kendall Graveman (4-4) and sent him to the dugout after 2 1/3 innings and 55 pitches for his shortest start of the season.
Kentucky grabbed the lead in the third inning with two runs. Back-to-back singles by Thomas McCarthy (4-for-5, RBI, three runs) and Luke Mailed started the inning. After a lineout, Michael Williams hit a game-tying single. McCarthy matched an SEC tournament record with three doubles off three pitchers (Graveman, Luis Pollorena, and Taylor Stark).
“Today was a good today for me, and I was so happy I finally was able to do something to help,” McCarthy said.
Williams, a senior catcher, had a three-hit day against Cohen, who recruited him to Kentucky.
“It’s always good to get that game under way and to beat John Cohen,” Williams said. “It’s kind of funny how that works out.”
Kentucky starting pitcher Jerad Grundy relied mostly on a changeup and a hard-breaking slider to handcuff hitters through six innings. He allowed a run in the opening frame, and went on to tie a career high with nine strikeouts.
“I thought he did a good job of mixing it up after the first time through the order when we kind of got to him in that first inning,” MSU shortstop Adam Frazier said. “After the first time through we could’ve made an adjustment to it but he did a good job locating it.”
Frazier was 1-for-4 and scored the Bulldogs’ only run. The Team USA selection has a hit in 48 of MSU’s 58 games.
Sixth-seeded MSU (36-22) will face top-seeded LSU (43-15) at 3 p.m.
today (CSS) in an elimination game. The game will be a rematch of MSU’s 3-2 victory Wednesday. LSU defeated the University of Mississippi 11-2 in an elimination game Thursday.
“What we need to do as an entire club is make sure we put this in our rear view mirror and concentrate on trying to rebound against an excellent LSU team that now has confidence,” Cohen said.
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