CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Mississippi State University baseball team was going to do everything possible to rattle the freshman pitcher staring just over 60 feet in front of them.
The first half of the MSU lineup knocked left-hander Brandon Waddell all around Davenport Field on Saturday in a 11-6 victory in game one of the NCAA Charlottesville Super Regional. The bottom of the lineup brought out the bag of tricks.
The first five batters for MSU (47-18) accounted for 15 of the team’s 20 hits on pitches Waddell left up in the zone and that typically were in hitters’ counts. MSU coach John Cohen, who has stressed his reluctance to starting freshman pitchers, suggested there’s a different game plan for a offense against a pitcher without much big-game experience.
“What you’re trying to do against a freshman is make him come to you with his pitches,” said MSU junior shortstop Adam Frazier, who had a career-high six hits. “I noticed Waddell started me off with a breaking ball every time, and I wasn’t going to hit that pitch. I was going to make him throw me what I felt good about hitting today.”
The Bulldogs used the short game with bunts to make Waddell, a 6-foot-2 athlete from Houston, field his position, which MSU coaches knew he struggled to do. Waddell (6-3) had trouble with a suicide squeeze bunt in his last start against Army that helped the Black Knights score their only run in Virginia’s 2-1 victory in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional opener on May 31.
“That’s part of the discussion and part of the scouting report. There’s no question about that,” Cohen said. “There are also times where a freshman can be better than a senior.”
With MSU (47-18) trailing 3-2 in the third inning, a safety squeeze by C.T. Bradford was a defining moment in Waddell’s demise in the biggest start of his college career. Waddell lost control on the ball Bradford bunted back toward the mound. MSU outfielder Hunter Renfroe likely would’ve been out in between third base and home had Waddell fielded the ball properly.
“It’s just part of the game where I went to field it and the ball slipped through my hand,” Waddell said. “It’s really about as a team how you can bounce back from something like that happening.”
MSU coaches believe Bradford, who was one of two MSU players not to have a hit Saturday, is the perfect example of how a box score can be more than deceiving.
Bradford’s bunt was the 52nd sacrifice of the season for MSU. Cohen has stressed the importance of the sacrifice in every preseason and in-season practice session in his five years as MSU’s coach. In fact, MSU has a drill in a competitive tournament where all the hitter is allowed to do is bunt.
“It’s those types of things that our guys get tired of hearing about but we work on every day in practice because we know it’ll come up in a game,” Cohen said. “If hitting 400-foot home runs came up more often in our game, we’d work on that, but bunting and the fundamentals happen every game we play.”
MSU’s first sacrifice bunt came from 272-pound sophomore first baseman Wes Rea. Waddell’s error came on next batter in a third inning. In addition to the perfectly executed sacrifice, Rea had three hits for his 13th multi-hit game of the season.
After the Bradford bunt, MSU had three more sacrifices against three other pitchers that contributed to three more runs.
“We use the sacrifice bunt play a lot because well, we use this word a lot, but it’s our identity,” Cohen said. “Why would we turn away from our identity now?”
MSU senior catcher Nick Ammirati was asked to lay down two bunts. He forced a second pitching error, as freshman right-hander Josh Sborz threw the ball into right field in the fifth. Ammirati eventually scored to give MSU a 8-4 lead. The four errors for Virginia (50-11) was its season high for the season.
“We know we can’t do those things this time of the year,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “It will cost you games.”
One of Demarcus Henderson’s three hits Saturday came on a drag bunt. The junior left fielder scored MSU’s final MSU run.
In a similar ballpark to Dudy Noble Field, MSU used its small-ball identity to perfection to move one victory away from the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The teams will meet again at 6 tonight (ESPNU) in game two.
“I’m not seeing this place play as small,” Cohen said. “Our guys made it look today because we’re going to play this like it’s a pretty big ballpark.”
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