State Posts 8-3 NCAA Win Over Governors; Moves Into Regional Final

Saturday, June 4

Atlanta, Ga.

6:00 PM

Mississippi State

36-23

Austin Peay

34-23

Austin Peay

Mississippi State

MSU Takes Series With 3-2 Saturday Win At Alabama

State Posts 8-3 NCAA Win Over Governors; Moves Into Regional Final

June 04, 2011 | Baseball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

ATLANTA, Ga. - One win away.

Mississippi State moved within one victory of capturing the Atlanta Regional Saturday night as the Bulldogs used a seven-run fourth inning to dispatch Austin Peay 8-3 in a winners' bracket matchup played at Georgia Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium.

Seeded third in their first NCAA baseball regional appearance since 2007, the Bulldogs (36-23) will face either top-seed Georgia Tech (41-20) or fourth-seed Austin Peay (34-23) again in Sunday's 7 p.m. eastern championship game. Since MSU is the lone unbeaten, the Bulldogs would have to lose twice to not advance to Super Regional competition. If MSU drops the Sunday night contest, the second title game would be at 7 p.m. eastern Monday.

Playing less than 30 miles from his hometown, true freshman Evan Mitchell had his brightest moment for the Bulldogs Saturday night. Mitchell carried a five-hit shutout into the ninth inning. Trying to get Mitchell the squad's first complete game of 2011, he was allowed to start the ninth inning. A hit batsman and pair of walks ended Mitchell's night on the mound.

In relief, Daryl Norris closed the contest but not before the Governors scored a pair of runs on an infield error and another run on an RBI-single by Jon Clinard. MSU had entered the final frame with 17 innings of shutout pitching and errorless defense in regional tournament play.

"We are really proud of the effort of Evan Mitchell," MSU head coach John Cohen said. "His last three outings have been outstanding. That's why we put the ball in his hands. He did a really good job of attacking the strike zone."

In his season-best eight-plus innings of work, Mitchell allowed five hits and three runs (all earned), with eight strikeouts and five walks. His pitch count finished at 128. As Mitchell took the mound in the ninth inning, a heavily-dominated Maroon and White crowd roared its unanimous approval.

"It was definitely nice to pitch in front of my friends and family," said Mitchell, who starred at Wheeler High School in nearby Marietta. "I didn't want to think too much about it and get all caught up in that. I wanted to treat it like another day, another outing."

However, it was anything but. Prior to this season, the Bulldogs had four postseason shutouts in school history. Saturday night, the Bulldogs came within three outs of accomplishing the feat on back-to-back nights. Only the 1989 Bulldogs threw two shutouts in the same postseason, alas those did not come on back-to-back nights.

"He has given us a lift here late in the season," Cohen said. "I really proud of the competitive nature of Evan. The main thing is that he throws strikes and fills the strike zone. He competes against every hitter. We have all seen him grown up a lot this season."

The Bulldogs defeated Southern Mississippi 3-0 in their tournament opener Friday. In that victory, MSU only scored in two different innings. The formula held again Saturday. MSU scored once in the first inning and seven times in the fourth inning.

MSU is now 26-1 this season with scoring six or more runs in a game.

In the first inning, C.T. Bradford began things with a leadoff single. After a lineout, Jarrod Parks reached as a hit batsman. Nick Vickerson followed with an RBI-double. For Vickerson, it was his sixth extra-base hits in his last five games.

Ryan Collins began the fourth inning with an infield bunt single. After a sacrifice bunt by Wes Thigpen, C.T. Bradford followed with an RBI-triple. A line drive sacrifice fly by Cody Freeman plated Bradford, running the lead to 3-0.

"C.T. is not a freshman anymore," Cohen said. "He is a sophomore. That was a huge swing of the bat today that changed the nature of the game."

The Governors replaced starting pitcher Jeremy Dobbs (9-3) with Chuck Edlin. However, the Bulldogs kept swinging away.

Parks and Vickerson received back-to-back walks from the new hurler. Jaron Shepherd followed with an RBI-single. That hit scored Parks on a bang-bang play at the plate which led to the ejection of Austin Peay coach Gary McClure for arguing.

In relief, Austin Peay turned to Mike Hebert. Brent Brownlee reached as a hit batsman, loading the bases. The Bulldogs then tacked on an RBI-single by Jonathan Ogden - batting for the third time with the bases loaded in the game; a two-run single by Collins and RBI-double by Thigpen.

The Bulldogs finished with 10 total hits, as six of them came in that at-bat. The Maroon and White also stranded 10 base runners. Bradford, Collins and Thigpen each had multiple hits.

Michael Blanchard finished with two of Austin Peay's six hits.

Sunday's opener is the elimination game between Georgia Tech and Austin Peay. Game time there is 3 p.m. eastern. All games in the Atlanta regional are being televised regionally by Comcast Sports Southeast and video streamed on NCAA.com (blacked out in CSS markets).