There’s nothing quite like home. Just ask the Mississippi State baseball team.
The Diamond Dawgs will look to close out their five-game home stand undefeated with a 6:30 p.m. game Tuesday against Texas Southern before taking on Arkansas in a three-game series in Fayetteville starting Thursday.
MSU comes into the contest as winners of seven of its last eight, including a 4-0 stretch last week with a win over South Alabama and a three-game sweep over Alabama during Super Bulldog Weekend.
At 31-6, MSU has tied the 1989 squad as the fastest team to 30 wins in a season in program history. The Diamond Dawgs are also the only Division I program to enter the 10th week of the regular season with 30 or more wins.
“It was a good first half (of the season),” sophomore first baseman Tanner Allen said. “But nobody is going remember the first half if you don’t have a good second half.
Offensively, the Diamond Dawgs continue to rake.
Allen has shaken his midseason slump, having notched 13 hits in his last five games.
His three doubles in Sunday’s win over Alabama were the first time since he did so June 3, 2018 against Samford in the NCAA Regionals.
Fellow sophomore Rowdey Jordan has also been on a tear of late. Jordan has hits in eight of his past 10 games and five extra-base hits over that span.
“Everybody is going to struggle at some point in time,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We knew those guys would come out of it and they sat down a little bit here and there and moved them around the lineup, but at the end of the day we can’t be great without those two guys.”
Senior center fielder Jake Mangum continues his march toward history. Mangum is now eight hits shy of LSU’s Eddie Furniss’ 352 career hits.
Freshman Brandon Smith will get his first career start on the mound for Lemonis’ bunch. Smith is 2-0 with a 4.35 ERA in 16 appearances this season. His last extended outing came when he pitched 2.1 innings against South Alabama April 10, giving up four hits and two runs.
Texas Southern enters the game at 11-25 and 7-8 in the SWAC. The Tigers were swept by Lipscomb this past weekend in Nashville.
Seniors Keanu Van Kuren, Christian Sanchez and junior Tyson Thompson will pace the Texas Southern offense as all three players are hitting .320 or above.
Senior outfielder Olajide Oloruntimilehin has broken his recent hitting woes, recording multiple hits in six of his past eight games.
Texas Southern has yet to name a starting pitcher.
Dawg notes: Ethan Small was named to the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s National Weekly Honor Roll on Monday. This is Small’s third honor from the publication this season. He was previously added to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Watch List and was named to the National Weekly Honor Roll Feb. 25 following outings against Southern Mississippi and then-No. 4 Florida.
This past week Small dominated Alabama. In six innings of work, the redshirt junior struck out 15 of the 18 batters he faced — the most for an MSU pitcher since Chris Stratton did so in 2012 against LSU.
Small now boasts a 1.84 ERA along with 94 strikeouts which rank No. 2 in the NCAA. His 0.87 WHIP is good for No. 22 in the country and No. 4 in the Southeastern Conference.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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