Embarrassing.
That was the one word that came to mind for Mississippi State Baseball coach John Cohen and junior Gavin Collins when talking about Friday night’s 12-2, seven-inning run-rule loss to Florida Friday to be eliminated from the Southeastern Conference tournament in Hoover, Alabama.
The Bulldogs didn’t play well, committing three errors, allowing 14 hits and stranding seven baserunners. Now MSU must wait. The 16 host sites for the NCAA tournament will be announced at 7:30 p.m. today (social media distribution), while the field of 64 will be unveiled 11 a.m. Monday (ESPNU).
“We won the Southeastern Conference, but that means nothing,” Cohen said. “If you don’t show up, really let the game come to you, focus in and make great decisions, these are the things that are going to happen to you.”
The Bulldogs (41-16-1) went 21-9 to claim their first outright regular season SEC title since 1989. MSU entered as the top seed and after beating Alabama 4-1 Wednesday, MSU lost 6-2 to LSU and were eliminated by Florida.
MSU is expected to be a national seed and will have a chance to host a regional and a super regional before the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The Bulldogs have never done both in the same season. The last Starkville regional was in 2013, while the last super regional was in 2007.
Junior first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said the expectations of being a national seed were “irrelevant” in MSU’s performance.
“That’s outside the game, that’s outside the foul lines out there and the only thing that matters when we play is in there,” Lowe said. “We didn’t take care of business.”
Lowe felt like the Bulldogs got away from their identity and didn’t play their style of game that led to three-straight SEC series sweeps to end the regular season and a 12-game winning streak.
Cohen pointed out catcher Elih Marrero’s poor decision to try and pick off a runner at third, leading to an error and a run, and Jake Mangum trying to stretch a single into a double, as examples of his team trying to do too much.
When asked if there were nerves for his team, Cohen talked about his players being over-amped.
“I think it’s the opposite, I think our kids are trying too hard,” Cohen said. “I think they knew we had a lot of fans come over to support us and I think they wanted to put on a good show. I think they’re embarrassed that they didn’t, I know I am.”
MSU went 24-30 overall and 8-22 in the SEC last season to miss the postseason. Last season’s performance has been a big motivation in the best turnaround in SEC history.
Collins, whose 18-game hitting streak was snapped Thursday, feels like last season and the two losses this week will be talking points in getting ready for the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do this week and we all know that,” Collins said. “We’re going to get after it, have a different look and be ready to go when the regional comes.
“It kind of clicks in everyone’s head, ‘Hey, we need to get back to work and we need to work on the right things.'”
Cohen said the Bulldogs would practice Saturday to begin the process of putting the 1-2 performance in Hoover behind them. The grind of winning a conference tournament affected the Bulldogs in 2012. After playing six games in six days to win the 2012 SEC tournament, MSU went 1-2 in the Tallahassee (Florida) Regional. Both losses came to Samford.
MSU now gets two extra days to rest and correct the defensive problems and the offensive approach. Once confirmed as a host, games would start Thursday or Friday at Dudy Noble Field.
“We’ll be ready to play whoever we need to play (this) week,” Cohen said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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