Diamond Dogs Test UAB Tuesday In Birmingham
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State (8-9) travels to Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday for its first midweek road competition of the year, testing the UAB Blazers (6-9) in a 6:30 p.m. contest at Jerry Young Field. The radio broadcast of the game will be carried on the statewide MSU Baseball Radio Network and available to "Maroon to the Max" subscribers on the MSU athletics web site mstateathletics.com.
The Bulldogs, who began their just-concluded 14-game home stand Feb. 26 with a 9-3 win over UAB Feb. 26, play their next four games away from Dudy Noble Field. Following the UAB contest, State travels to Columbia, S.C., for a three-game Easter weekend series against the eighth-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks (11-5, 1-2 SEC).
MSU is expected to split up its Tuesday night pitching duties, with junior right-hander Chad Crosswhite expected to open on the mound. UAB, which has not played since Mar. 12, the final game of a five-game road trip to Hawaii, has not announced its starting pitcher.
Freshman catcher Cody Freeman of Collinsville, Miss., paces the Bulldogs at the plate with a .459 batting average and enters the week riding a six-game hitting streak. Redshirt freshman DH/outfielder Jason Nappi of Birmingham, Ala., who leads the club with 25 hits, four home runs and 16 RBI, is next with a .403 batting average.
Junior outfielder Grant Hogue (.366) of Hattiesburg, Miss., pilfered five bases over the last week to maintain his Southeastern Conference lead in stolen bases. The former Oak Grove High School and Pearl River CC standout has stolen 13 bases in as many attempts, matching MSU’s
2007 team-leading 13 stolen bases by former MSU standout Jeffrey Rea.
Tuesday’s game matches MSU with a team coached by a former MSU assistant coach. Brian Shoop served on the MSU staff for seven seasons
(1983-89) before becoming head coach at Birmingham-Southern. In 2006, the last of his 17 seasons at Birmingham-Southern, Shoop coached current MSU junior outfielder Mark Goforth.