No. 19 Diamond Dogs Visit No. 7 Kentucky
May 25, 2016 | Baseball
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The 19th-ranked Bulldogs make their final regular-seasonroad run in 2006 this weekend when Mississippi State (33-16, 11-12 SEC)squares off against the SEC-leading Kentucky Wildcats (37-11, 16-8 SEC) in athree-game weekend series at UK's Cliff Hagan Stadium/Shively Field.Friday's series-opener is set for 5:30 p.m. (CDT) and like Saturday's 6 p.m.(CDT) game will be televised live by FOX Sports Net.
The Bulldogs will open with senior lefty Brooks Dunn (8-4, 4.12) Fridayopposite UK's Aaron Tennyson (4-2, 3.91) and sophomore lefty Justin Pigott(5-0, 0.94) against Wildcats lefty Craig Snipp (5-3, 3.30) Saturday. Dunnregistered his second straight complete game and struck out a career-high 11in last Friday's series-opening 6-2 win over Florida. Pigott followed Dunn'slead with his first career performance in his second start of the year,tossing an 83-pitch three-hitter and allowing one unearned run in aseries-clinching 8-1 win over the defending SEC champions. For his effortPigott was selected SEC Pitcher of the Week.
There's plenty at stake for both teams heading into weekend No. 9 of the2006 SEC campaign. With two weekends of league play remaining, no team hasclinched a berth in the eight-team SEC Baseball Tournament May 24-28 inHoover, Ala. Similarly, no team has been eliminated from thedouble-elimination event. Kentucky, sporting its highest national rankingand a league-leading 15-8 SEC record, is in the running for its first SECregular season title and a No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament. MSU, currentlyin eighth place in the overall league standings, is in the thick of a tightbattle with No. 7 Vanderbilt (12-12 SEC) and No. 9 LSU (11-13 SEC). MSUenters the weekend a game and a half out of fourth place, where a trio ofteams - Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, sports 13-11 league marks.
MSU senior shortstop Thomas Berkery, making a bid for the SEC batting crownin 2006, continues to lead the league in hitting with a .394 battingaverage. The Dick Howser Award candidate earlier this season recorded aschool-record and SEC season-best 30-game hitting streak and has hit safelyin 42 of his 47 games played.
Smooth-fielding MSU second baseman Jeffrey Rea (.362) ranks third in the SECwith 75 hits and has hit safely in 21 of MSU's 23 SEC games.
Following Sunday's 12:00p.m. (CDT) series finale in Lexington, the Bulldogsreturn to Dudy noble Field, closing out the '06 regular season schedulehosting UT-Martin May 16 and instate SEC rival Mississippi May 18-20 in afirst-ever Thursday-Friday-Saturday SEC series at Dudy Noble Field.
