STARKVILLE — Trevor Fitts and John Holland haven’t given up on this Mississippi State baseball team.
With the regular season winding to a close and MSU reeling from being swept by then-No. 8 Florida, Fitts and Holland were asked Saturday about MSU’s postseason possibilities.
“I know we are running out of games,” Fitts said. “But I really feel like we’re right there. I really like this team. I know we are not showing it at all times, but I think we’ve got a good team. If we put ourselves in such a hole that we will have to win the SEC tournament just to get a bid, then that’s what we will have to do. I think we can do it.”
Said Holland, “We are good enough. It’s just a matter of putting it all together. But I still believe in this team, and so does every man in that dugout.”
Florida outscored MSU 18-9 and never trailed on the weekend. Florida (32-10), which beat Bethune-Cookman 2-1 on Tuesday, used the sweep of MSU to climb to No. 6 in this week’s Baseball America rankings. The three losses dropped MSU to last place in the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division. MSU is tied for 12th with Georgia in the Southeastern Conference. The top 12 teams qualify for the SEC tournament, which begins May 19 in Hoover, Alabama.
But Fitts and Holland weren’t referring to the SEC tournament. They and the Bulldogs still have their sights set on a fifth-straight bid to the NCAA tournament bid. MSU has plenty of work to do to realize that goal. MSU’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) fell to No. 98 RPI following the losses to Florida. MSU bottomed out at No. 122 following a midweek loss to Memphis two weeks ago and peaked at No. 88 after it defeated then-No. 2 Texas A&M in Game 2 of that series in College Station, Texas.
MSU has the second-lowest RPI of any team in the conference. RPI is a factor that the NCAA tournament selection committee uses to pick the at-large teams for the tournament field.
With four SEC weekend series remaining, MSU would have to finish 9-3 to break even in league play, but it has lost six of its last seven league games.
History shows how much work MSU has to do. In 2014, Texas A&M had the lowest RPI (No. 85) of any SEC team to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Aggies earned a No. 3 seed in the Rice Regional. But they finished the regular season 33-23 and won 14 SEC games. MSU, which has lost five of its six SEC weekend series, would have to go 11-2 to end the regular-season with 33 wins. In the previous four seasons, MSU has won at least 38 games, a number it won’t be able to reach without an extended postseason run.
MSU will have a chance to climb in the RPI. Three of its final four SEC weekends will be against teams in the top 51 of the RPI, including trips to No. 30 Ole Miss and No. 51 Arkansas and also a home series against No. 8 LSU.
MSU coach John Cohen declined to talk about his team’s NCAA chances.
“We just don’t have time to worry about all of that stuff,” Cohen said. “I know you guys don’t like to hear that, but it’s true.”
When Florida swept MSU the next day, Cohen didn’t buckle and reiterated what has become his stance for the past several weeks: Despite the losses, Cohen believes MSU is an eyelash away from being a dangerous team.
“We do so many good things as a team,” Cohen said. “You look at the box scores against Florida. We are not walking many, we are punching out a lot of hitters, we aren’t committing errors. But, for whatever reason, the ball isn’t bouncing our way at all. I still believe it will. We have a lot of baseball left to play.”
McDonald, Heck nominees for McWhorter Post-Graduate Scholarships
MSU All-America golfer Ally McDonald and shortstop Seth Heck have been nominated for the prestigious H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship, the Southeastern Conference announced Tuesday.
The scholarship, presented annually by the conference since 1986, is awarded to the league’s top male and female scholar-athletes.
A kinesiology major with a 3.6 grade-point average, McDonald is a two-time WGCA Academic All-American off the course and a 2013 and 2014 WGCA All-American on the course. The two-time All-SEC golfer from Fulton is coming off an impressive week at the SEC Championship, where she shot a personal-low 69 in the second round of the tournament en route to a 12th-place finish.
McDonald, a school-record four-time SEC Golfer of the Week, has won five career tournaments and owns every individual season record at MSU.
Last year at the NCAA Championships, McDonald finished tied for fourth, the best in school history.
Heck, a business administration major expected to graduate this May, has had a 4.00 GPA every semester since arriving in Starkville. This past season, the Edmonds, Washington, native was voted by the league coaches as the SEC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
This spring, the 2014 All-SEC Defensive Team member is hitting .300 in 41 games with 23 runs and 21 walks.
Should McDonald or Heck win, they will receive a $15,000 post-graduate scholarship. Should they not win, both will receive a $7,500 post-graduate scholarship. Winners are chosen by a committee of Faculty Athletics Representatives from all 14 institutions. They will be honored next month at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Florida.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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