TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Two Mississippi State University baseball teams showed up to Dick Howser Stadium for the NCAA tournament’s Tallahassee Regional.
The first one was mesmerized by the shorter fences but had just five hits and watched as NCAA-tournament newcomer Samford University hit four home runs in a 5-0 loss.
“It’s very, very hard when you put that much pressure on your pitching staff to not give up runs,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “The difference I thought today was we gave up two home runs (on counts of) 0-2 and we’ve set a pretty high standard in that area.”
The second MSU showed up with much more emotion Saturday against the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although slow to get started, MSU rallied for six runs in the sixth inning en route to an 8-1 victory that helped it stay alive in the double-elimination event at Florida State University.
“We needed to get something going offensively today and we had a little help,” Cohen said. “We kept hanging around and had a couple things happen for us later in the game.”
MSU will get a rematch against Samford at 11 a.m. today after top-seeded Florida State defeated third-seeded Samford 8-1 on Saturday night. The winner will have to beat the Seminoles, the No. 3 overall seed, tonight and Monday night to advance to the Super Regionals.
No. 14 and second-seeded MSU (40-23) looked it would follow Friday’s effort with another pedestrian day at the plate. UAB starting pitcher Ryan Nance had a career-high seven strikeouts by the fifth inning before MSU scored its first run in the 2012 NCAA tournament. A two-run double by No. 9 hitter Sam Frost, who entered the tournament hitting .221, ignited the Bulldogs. Frost, a junior walk-on, had a season-high three RBIs.
UAB (32-30), the Conference USA tournament champions, was eliminated in its first NCAA tournament regional appearance since 1991.
“I said it coming into this week (that) we’re not a great offensive club,” said UAB coach Brian Shoop, a former assistant coach to Ron Polk at MSU. Polk is a volunteer assistant coach at UAB. “We need productive outs and to situational hit. Our numbers are easy to read. Yes, we had chances, but it was against really solid arms against Mississippi State.”
The bottom of MSU’s order backed solid pitching. Frost and Matthew Britton combined for three hits, three runs scored, and three RBIs.
“Those were huge runs, and then Sammy took some great swings for us,” Cohen said. “Sometimes you just need one guy to step up and be accountable, and that’s what (Frost) did.”
MSU failed to get one great swing Friday in its opener against Samford (40-21), which was making its first NCAA tournament appearance. Ace right-hander Chris Stratton surrendered three home runs to one of the nation’s best offensives. The three home runs was the most hit against Stratton in his three-year career at MSU. The projected first-round pick in next week’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft allowed four runs (all off home runs) on six hits in 7 2/3 innings. It was the first time MSU had given up that many home runs since the final game of the 2011 Gainesville Super Regional when top-seeded University of Florida hit five.
“For all the questions about who you faced and how small your ballpark is and those kind of things we’ve been asked — four balls got out of here pretty quick against a pretty good team,” Samford coach Casey Dunn said.
Senior right-hander Charles Basford held MSU scoreless for the first time in 35 NCAA games. Pitching in his hometown, Basford (10-2) scattered five hits and struck out four in a 131-pitch outing.
“What a pretty good homecoming for a local guy, huh?” Dunn said. “It was a great outing by Charles that set the tone.”
Basford said he’d “dreamed” of attending MSU as a high school pitcher in Tallahassee, Fla., and hoped to get a call from Polk, the then-MSU coach.
“(I knew) it was a great program coached by one of the best in the game in coach Polk,” Basford said.
MSU got only one runner past second base against Basford and C.K. Irby, who got the final three outs. The loss reminded Cohen of a 2-0 setback against the University of Central Arkansas at Dudy Noble Field in the regular season.
“We just didn’t score in that game (against Central Arkansas) and didn’t recognize pitches,” Cohen said. “I don’t know if it is focus issue or what, but we did a very poor job.”
MSU was scoreless in its first 13 innings of regional play before the momentum shifted in a sixth frame. Leading 2-1, MSU batted around for the 15th time this season. Freshman Wes Rea and junior designated hitter Trey Porter had RBIs to help the Bulldogs cruise to a victory.
Even in a much smaller ballpark than Dudy Noble Field or Regions Park, the site of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Hoover, Ala., the Bulldogs used small-ball tactics to guarantee their first 40-win season since 2005.
“(The short game) is something we just have to do,” Cohen said. “UAB is extremely well-coached. They did a nice job defensively. The placements of our bunts really caused some havoc. I think we had three or four bunts that you couldn’t roll them out there with your hand any better than that.”
For MSU to advance to back-to-back Super Regionals for the first time since 2001, it will have to take the same approach at the plate it used Saturday to win three straight games in two days.
“That’s exactly what we talked about doing no matter how the ballpark plays,” Cohen said. “The bunting and short stuff is going to work for us no matter the size of the park.”
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