Mississippi State
Louisville
Louisville Long Balls End Memorable Diamond Dog Season
June 17, 2007 | Baseball
Mississippi State completed the 2007 season with a 38-22 overall record, capped by an exciting postseason run that saw the Diamond Dogs sweep through NCAA Regional and Super Regional play with a perfect 5-0 record to reach the CWS.
Unfortuntately, the good times halted there, as the Bulldogs were winless in Omaha for the second time ever and first time since 1971.
"I am really proud of this ball club and this group of kids," MSU head coach Ron Polk said. "We were picked last in the (Southeastern Conference) Western Division. The kids did much better than that. The team had a 3.22 GPA. We didn't have a problem all year. This is a special group of kids and I loved coaching them."
The Bulldogs (38-22) battled hard but fell short, losing 8-5 to North Carolina in their tournament opener Friday night. On Sunday afternoon, MSU fell into a deep hole early. Louisville (47-23) scored in each of its first four at-bats and sprinted to an 8-0 advantage. Brandon Turner hit a three-run home run to close the defecit to 8-3 in the home half of the sixth inning. The Cardinals then hustled back to safety, adding three scores of their own in the top half of the seventh inning.
"It's like Coach Polk said, there are 293 teams in Division I baseball and only one team is going to end the year happy," MSU senior co-captain Jeffrey Rea said. "Today, the breaks didn't go our way. It's really frustrating for the season to end like this. However, I am very proud of my career. We had a lot of great times."
Rea had three hits in Sunday's defeat and finished CWS play with four hits. The senior from Nettleton capped his time at MSU as the school's all-time leader in hits, totaling 335 in his brilliant career. Turner had two hits but just missed out on joining the MSU .400 club for a single season. The redshirt freshman finished 2007 with a team-best .399 average.
After dropping a 15-10 offensive shootout to Rice in its tournament opener, Louisville continued that offensive pace Sunday afternoon. Logan Johnson slapped a two-run home run in the UL first inning.
An inning later, Chris Dominguez delivered a home run. The Cardinals third baseman wound up homering twice Sunday and has now hit eight in Louisville's postseason affairs.
A two-run double by Isaiah Howes ran the advantage to 5-0 and chased MSU starter Chad Crosswhite in the third inning. Greg Houston relieved Crosswhite and worked MSU out of the third, but was touched for a three-run home run by Daniel Burton an inning later.
Relievers Tyler Whitney and Aaron Weatherford followed with back-to-back innings of shutout relief, allowing MSU to try to rally. The Bulldogs finally broke through with Turner's three-run run shot to left center in the sixth inning. It was his third long ball of the year.
An inning later, Weatherford was touched for a two-run home run by Dominguez. The Cardinals scored eight of their first 10 runs of the game via the long ball.
In the home half of the seventh, the Bulldogs closed the defecit to 11-4 on an RBI double by Mitch Moreland. However, the Bulldogs could draw no closer.
"Playing here was a lot of fun," Turner said. "I think we have a lot to look forward to. I am going to really miss these seniors. This was a great group of guys to play with. I will always remember being able to play here. Hopefully, we can work hard and get back."
MSU finished with 10 hits. Rea had three, while Moreland and Turner contributed two each. Crosswhite (8-5) worked 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs (all earned). Houston, Whitney, Weatherford and Josh Johnson worked in relief.
The Cardinals, who play either Rice or North Carolina in another elimination game Tuesday at 1 p.m., finished with 18 hits. Howes and Chris Cates each had three hits for Louisville. Boomer Whiting, Logan Johnson, Jorge Castillo and Dominguez also had multiple hits for the Cardinals.
Justin Marks (9-2) pitched 5 1/3 innings to record the win for UL. Marks allowed four hits and three runs (all earned) before being lifted in the MSU sixth inning after being hit by a line drive off his knee. Kyle Hollander and Skylar Meade followed in relief, helping the Cardinals close out their first College World Series win in school history.
