STARKVILLE — Mississippi State baseball coach John Cohen spent much of the preseason telling media, fans, and his players about the importance of a dominant bullpen.
In an effort to continue his team’s recent trend of strong bullpens, Cohen made several changes. Among them was moving senior Trevor Fitts, a starting pitcher, to closer and moving Vance Tatum, another starter, to reliever.
Cohen also wanted to have senior left-hander Ross Mitchell (24-5 record entering the season) as an option out of the bullpen.
So far, so good.
Four games into the season, MSU’s bullpen has picked up where it left off last year. Without stalwarts like closer Jonathan Holder and left-hander Jacob Lindgren, MSU has turned to a group of young, electric arms to support its starting pitchers.
“I thought our entire pitching staff did a good job,” Cohen said Saturday after wins against Miami University and Cincinnati. “Particularly in the bullpen, we’ve seen some guys go out there and give us quality innings. We know what we will get with Ross Mitchell, but guys like Zac Houston, Daniel Brown really pitched well. We have to have that, especially early in the season.”
No. 14 MSU’s pitching staff yielded 15 runs in four games. Ten of those runs were scored against freshmen Jesse McCord and Paxton Stover in their first appearances as Bulldogs. Aside from Stover, MSU’s bullpen was nasty. Relievers Mitchell, Tatum, and Daniel Brown earned victories. The exception came on opening night, when starter Preston Brown scattered seven hits in five innings in a 6-2 victory against Cincinnati. Setting aside the six runs Stover allowed against Cincinnati in two-thirds of an inning Sunday, MSU’s bullpen was lights out, as seven others combined to allow one run in 23 2/3 innings. The stretch included 23 strikeouts and 14 hits allowed.
Sophomores Houston and Daniel Brown helped set the tone by pitched two innings of scoreless relief in support of Preston Brown on Friday night.
“Those guys were great,” Preston Brown said. “They came in and really threw the ball well.”
Daniel Brown might have had the breakout performance. The hard-throwing left-hander, who earned the win Sunday, pitched four innings on the weekend and allowed one hit and struck out seven.
Tatum yielded one hit in 16 at-bats (an average of .063). His emergence wasn’t a surprise to his teammates.
“I think Vance is a guy that’s going to have a great year, a really great year,” MSU senior shortstop Seth Heck said in the preseason. “He’s got the ability to be that shutdown guy out of the pen like a Jacob Lindgren. That’s the kind of stuff he has.”
Fitts, who threw three scoreless innings Sunday to get his first save, agreed.
“Vance is going to be great in his new role,” said Fitts, referring to Tatum inheriting Lindgren’s role as setup man. “He can throw multiple pitches for strikes and he’s a true competitor, a guy who wants the ball in his hands.”
Fitts also fits that profile. A senior who started 16 games last season, Fitts asked in the offseason to become MSU’s closer. MSU pitching coach Butch Thompson signed off on the move because he knows Fitts is “going to compete every game, every pitch. He wants the ball in his hand, and I trust him with it whether it’s at the beginning of the game or the bottom of the ninth.”
With MSU winning each game by an average of 12 runs, it didn’t have many opportunities to use a closer. That’s why Cohen wanted to see as many pitchers as possible Sunday. Fitts was the fifth of five pitchers used in the game. He threw 47 pitches and allowed one hit and two walks. He struck out three.
“I thought all of our pitchers did a good job,” Cohen said. “We saw what we wanted to see out of our bullpen. Trevor, we wanted him in the game but the situation never came up, o we threw him in there. You don’t want to play four games and never see him on the mound. I thought he did well.”
Fitts’ role in the back end of the bullpen will be crucial for a team that has relied on its bullpen in recent years. This year, the faces might be new, but the results through four games have been the same.
“That’s the elephant in the room with this team,” Thompson said in the preseason. “It’s our bullpen. Will we be able to find the right guys for the right spots? We feel good about the guys we have, and we feel like we can be just as good as ever.”
MSU will play host to Marshall at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It also will play Alabama A&M at 2 p.m. Saturday and at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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