HOOVER, Ala. — The Mississippi State University baseball team continues to beat the odds.
In the classic matter-of-fact manner MSU head coach John Cohen used economic logic to describe the reason his team will play for the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament championship Sunday.
“Well, we give them meal money for the whole week so why not win it?” Cohen asked in a joking manner.
The Bulldogs knocked off No. 11 Kentucky for the fourth time in five matchups this season with a 2-1 victory Saturday afternoon in the semifinal round at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala.
“The way our kids have handled this, our attitude and the way they go about their business, is almost inspirational to our coaching staff,”
MSU coach John Cohen said. “If you want to talk about our team being hot, fine, but I think that means when we show up at the ballpark then we think we’re going to win every game. The goal is simple — find a way to a win a ballgame.”
This victory over the Wildcats came less than 24 hours after the Bulldogs remained alive following a dramatic, 4-3 10-inning victory over No. 2 Louisiana State University Friday where MSU managed to score the final four runs of the contest.
“Our kids competed hard,” Cohen said Friday. “We had some situations early where we didn’t score runs. But we have the right kids in the dugout. You can get frustrated, but you can’t lose focus. They competed their hearts out there this afternoon. I really love these kids. I love everything about them.”
MSU played the bunting game to perfection, with five sacrifice bunts, and that turned into the run-scoring opportunities in the second and third innings.
MSU (38-22) got the leadoff batter on base six of nine times Friday against Kentucky and led to two of the Bulldogs’ bigger mashers (first baseman Wes Rea and designated hitter Trey Porter) in the middle of the order, finding success with RBI-singles to score Adam Frazier and DeMarcus Henderson for the visitors’ two runs in the afternoon.
Porter was 1-for-15 before that game-winning single in the third inning that produced the junior’s fourth RBI in this month.
“The coaches have just wanted me to go up there and not try to do too much,” Porter said. “I haven’t been pressing too much but just concentrating on putting good swings on pitches. Eventually those turn into hits.”
The Bulldogs defeated LSU twice in the same conference tournament for the first time ever. The Bulldogs have now won 15 of their last 20 games against conference opponents.
On Friday afternoon, against a team with eyes on getting to Omaha and winning a national championship, MSU decided to once again ignore logic, reasoning and stay alive for another day in Hoover.
“What is amazing is we have so many players on this team that had not played in an SEC baseball game before this season,” Cohen said.
“We took these freshmen and beat one of the premier teams in the nation for the second time in a week.”
Jonathan Holder (2-0) got a victory and save on the mound in two days after working a perfect two total innings in relief. In doing so, Holder, a true freshman right-hander, still owns the school-record for consecutive scoreless innings by tossing 27 1-1/3 frames without allowing a single run.
“Right now his nickname is ‘The Truth’ and as long as he’s still tossing up zeros up there then he’ll keep that nickname a bit longer,” MSU sophomore shortstop Adam Frazier said with a smile.
MSU left-handed pitcher Nick Routt (3-5) worked 3.1 innings of three-hit shutout relief to keep Kentucky’s high-powered offense quiet and earn the victory Saturday.
Saturday’s win over UK also allowed MSU to match last season’s victory total with the 38th victory in the 2012 campaign. The Bulldogs also knocked off the Wildcats for a fourth time this season, which is a first in program history.
UK starting pitcher Corey Littrell’s only two losses this season have come at the hands of MSU in less than a 10-day stretch.
“I have a lot of thoughts on (Corey) because he has to continue to make progress to becoming a better starting pitcher,” Henderson said.
“It wasn’t his cleanest outing of the season but it was against one of the best teams in the country and clearly he’s fighting himself right now.”
Despite likely locking up an NCAA Regional hosting assignment next week for the start of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, UK coach Gary Henderson was nearly in tears at the post-game podium hoping his program could play for the school’s first ever SEC tournament championship.
“It’s extremely disappointing that we’re not playing (Sunday) because they’re tough and showed up but it was a rough day for us offensively,” Henderson said.
Henderson worked for Cohen as the Wildcats pitching coach when UK won its only SEC regular season championship in 2006.
“(MSU) did a tremendous job commanding the changeup and we hit a lot of balls hard,” Henderson said. “I can’t fault our kids because they fought as hard as they could, quite frankly.”
The 24th-ranked Bulldogs won for the fourth time in five tries in Hoover and will face Vanderbilt University in Sunday’s title game.
Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally by ESPN2 and will also be available on-line through ESPN3.COM.
The NCAA will announce its regional host sites prior to Sunday’s championship game. While the Bulldogs are not expected to host, they should be highly-seeded when the full 64-team regional tournament field is announced at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.
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