Dogs Stay Unbeaten In SEC Tourney With 6-2 Win Over No. 20 South Carolina; Earn Day Off Friday
May 26, 2005 | Baseball
HOOVER, Ala. --- Mississippi State scored five runs in the secondinning and Todd Doolittle backed it with one of the top pitchingperformances of his career Thursday as MSU (38-20) topped No. 20 SouthCarolina 6-2 in a winner's bracket game of the 2005 SEC BaseallTournament. The win over the Gamecocks (38-20) earned Mississippi Statea day off in the double-elimination tournament at the Hoover Met.
The Bulldogs play the winner of Friday's elimination game between SECEast rivals Tennessee and South Carolina in a 10 a.m. game Saturday.
State replicated the formula that led to a 9-2 win over No. 2 seed LSUwhen MSU scored four first-inning runs and rode the pitching of starterAlan Johnson to a win in Wednesday's tournament opener.
MSU batted through the order in the second, plating five runs on fivehits against USC senior righty Zac McCamie (8-4). Brad Corley's bloopsingle to shallow center opened the rally. Joseph Hunter was hit by apitch and Brian LaNinfa followed with a run-scoring single to centerfield. Jeff Butts followed with the inning's big blast, a two-run tripleto the right-center field wall at the spacious Hoover Met. Jeffrey Reaand Ed Easley added RBI singles to stake Doolittle to a 5-0 lead.
Doolittle blanked South Carolina on five-hit pitching over the firsteight frames, striking out 11 along the way. His bid for a shutout andcomplete-game ended in the ninth. The senior from Meridian, Miss.,sandwiched his 12th and 13th strikeouts around a hit batsman and a wildpitch. Jon Willard's pinch-hit single to left scored Chris Brown,breaking up the shutout, and ending Doolittle's impressive stay in thegame. Mike Valentine came on to finish the game, with a second USC runscoring on a throwing error.
Jeffrey Rea went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs, driving in MSU's sixthrun with a single when the Bulldogs jumped on McCamie for three straighthits to open the inning.
"I think that our five-run second inning was very similar to what wedid yesterday against LSU,' said MSU skipper Ron Polk. "We just got theruns and kept rolling at a great pace. Zac (McCamie) had good stuff allnight for South Carolina. But Todd was the key for us tonight. After wegot up five runs, he was able to settle in and strike out a career-high13 guys."
Doolittle was more than just a little pleased to see his teammates putup the early five runs.
"It was huge for me," said Doolittle. "That gave me a comfort zone. Myfastball was the key to my game tonight. I probably had 60 percent of mystrikeouts come from my fastball. But we knew coming in that a wintonight meant a day off tomorrow, and that was our motivation fortonight."
McCamie was charged with all six runs on nine hits with a walk and fivestrikeouts. At one stretch the USC starter retired 11 straight Bulldogbatters before State added its sixth run in the seventh inning. ConorLalor, brother of MSU freshman pitcher John Lalor, Forrest Beverly, JohnGregory and Wynn Pelzer combined to shut out the Bulldogs with two-hitpitching over the final three innings.
Steven Tolleson doubled and Jon Willard delivered a pinch-hit RBIsingle to lead South Carolina's five-hit attack.
The win was MSU's 50th in 25 SEC Baseball Tournaments, passing LSU formost in the conference, and evened the MSU-South Carolina baseballseries at 20 wins apiece.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 6, SOUTH CAROLINA 2
MSU 050 000 100 --- 6-11-1USC 000 000 002 --- 2-5-2WP --- Todd Doolittle (5-7). LP --- Zac McCamie (8-4). T --- 2:38. ATT--- TBA.
