Gendron, Tatum Power Dogs Past UL-Monroe, 8-4
March 31, 2004 | Baseball
Official Game Statistics (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Steve Gendron and Craig Tatum each hit home runs Wednesday night as Mississippi State (16-8) defeated Louisiana-Monroe 8-4 in college baseball action at Dudy Noble Field.
The Bulldogs broke a 4-4 tie with three runs in the seventh inning. The Indians (13-15) made two of their five errors in that inning.
"We really got a lot of momentum here from two midweek wins," said Gendron, who ran his hit streak to 15 games. "Even though we lost two games last weekend, we had 35 hits in the series against LSU. We got a lot of confidence at the plate there and it carried over into this week."
The Bulldogs defeated UAB 6-5 Tuesday night. In that contest as well as this one, the Bulldogs grabbed an early lead by scoring twice in the first inning.
In the opening inning, Jeffrey Rea singled and Gendron followed that with his third home run of the year.
A solo home run by Tatum - also his third - ran the Bulldogs lead to 3-0 in the third inning.
Monroe battled back with some power of its own. First baseman Ben Jones hit a pair of two-run home runs. For Jones, it was his seventh and eighth long balls of the season. The second home run tied the teams 4-4 in the sixth inning.
In the MSU seventh inning, Tatum started things again with a single. Brad Jones reached with a one-out walk. On a fielder's choice groundball, Monroe could not complete the putout and also made an error on the play, scoring both Tatum and Jones. Brian LaNinfa later walked and scored on Monroe's second miscue in the inning. A sacrifice fly by Tatum closed the MSU scoring in the eighth inning.
"We had a good game on offense," Rea said. "It's all about timely hits and we did a good job of getting those in each of these games. We hadn't hit a lot of home runs lately so it was good to see those two get out of the park, as well."
Brett Cleveland (1-0) allowed two hits and two runs (both earned) in two innings of work. Cleveland struck out four in relief of starter Josh Johnson. Johnson worked the first five innings, allowing three hits and two runs (both earned). Brooks Dunn pitched the eighth inning and also recorded one out in the ninth inning. Saunders Ramsey got a strikeout and groundout to end the contest.
Ramsey has now worked 20 scoreless innings in MSU's closer role. Ramsey actually threw five innings of shutout relief in State's 7-3 12-inning win over ULM in Jackson on March 17. The four MSU pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts against Monroe after striking out 12 UAB batters Tuesday night.
"Our pitchers threw strikes tonight," MSU coach Ron Polk said. "We have not been a strikeout-type staff this year but we really did a good job with those in these two games. Offensively, we had a couple of big hits with men on base."
Brandon Arrant (0-2) took the loss for ULM. Eddie Hymel started and worked the first three innings. Jesse Gay and James Stephens threw before Arrant and Jim Miller relieved in the eighth inning.
The Bulldogs finished with 10 hits. Rea, Tatum and Brad Corley had multiple hits.
Jones and Ty Rollison each had two hits of Monroe's six-hit total.
MSU hosts Mississippi in a three-game Southeastern Conference series this weekend. The Bulldogs and Rebels open the series with a 6:30 p.m. game Friday night.
"We are really looking forward to playing Ole Miss," Gendron said. "They are fourth in the nation and playing real well right now. But we feel like we are just as good as they are. The bottom line is that it's a big Southeastern Conference series. We have not won an SEC series yet, and we need to do that this weekend."
| MISSISSIPPI STATE 8, UL-MONROE 3 | |||||||
| ULM (13-15) | 000 | 202 | 000 | - | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| MSU (16-8) | 201 | 010 | 31x | - | 8 | 10 | 0 |
WP-Cleveland (1-0). LP-Arrant (0-2). 2B-Lamothe. HR-Ben Jones 2 (8), Gendron (3), Tatum (3). T-2:27. A-679.
