STARKVILLE — Given what lied ahead, it was easy for the Mississippi State baseball team to turn the page from opening its Southeastern Conference schedule by being swept. It had to navigate two home midweek games, win them both and do so while saving its pitching staff for the upcoming weekend series against Missouri.
Mission accomplished.
MSU used seven pitchers to complete Wednesday’s 11-6 win over Texas Southern (7-14) and kept all of them under 32 pitches, thus preserving them for the weekend. It comes a day after MSU used three relief pitchers after a four-inning start to beat Alcorn State. It’s not the easiest of configurations for a team that’s already missing two pitchers with season-ending injuries (Spencer Price and Graham Ashcraft), but it can rest assured knowing it won’t have to do this again: this is the last time MSU has two midweek games scheduled in the same week until the end of the regular season.
“I guess there’s two ways of looking at that,” MSU interim coach Gary Henderson said. “Some of that is good, you don’t have to worry about covering 18 innings, and I felt like for the most part we did a good job of covering the 18 innings so if we ended up with a rainout and something had to happen, I wouldn’t be opposed to that necessarily. In terms of delegating the pitching, nine innings is certainly a little easier than 18.”
MSU started Cole Gordon (2-1), who pitched two innings with one run and one hit allowed. Gordon got through it in 27 pitches and was followed up by very similar performances as Keegan James and Jared Liebelt both pitched two scoreless innings in 24 and 31 pitches, respectively. Denver McQuary, Trysten Barlow, Cole Marsh and Blake Smith combined for the final three innings; it was Barlow’s first appearance since Feb. 21 as he worked back from injury.
This routine has become the norm for McQuary, given this will be his third time pitching in the midweek and ensuing weekend. McQuary pitched against New Mexico State in a midweek on March 6 and Utah Valley on March 11, then in a midweek against Southeastern Louisiana on March 14 before the March 17 game against Vanderbilt.
“The team’s playing pretty well so whenever I get my opportunity to throw, that’s what I’m going to do and hopefully we keep playing like we are,” McQuary said.
Going forward, as MSU comes off of grueling weekend series in the SEC, the routine established there can get hectic: McQuary said scouting information for midweek games is generally given to them right before the game. Still, McQuary finds use for it in trying new things or working through other issues he’s having before the upcoming weekend; on Wednesday, for instance, McQuary experimented with a new grip to throw a breaking ball he had not thrown before.
He also knows he can only experiment so much.
“You have to treat it like it’s the weekend,” McQuary said. “When you don’t do that, your concentration dies down and that’s when you get off; I think that’s kind of what I did tonight, I didn’t throw as well as I wanted to.”
Luckily, McQuary and every other pitcher had more than enough run support.
MSU second consecutive night in double-digit runs was fueled by three RBIs from freshman third baseman Jordan Westburg, three hits from second baseman Hunter Stovall and two each from catcher Dustin Skelton, first baseman Josh Hatcher and center fielder Jake Mangum.
“Two nights in a row of improved at-bats and sustained concentration, although we lost our concentration in the seventh and eighth, that was pretty clear,” Henderson said. “Overall, a step forward for our kids offensively.”
Most importantly, every pitcher that pitched in the midweek games will be available for the weekend, Henderson said. They will all be in relief of the usual weekend rotation: Konnor Pilkington on Friday, Ethan Small on Saturday and Jacob Billingsley on Sunday.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.