Diamond Dogs Set To Host Vols At Dudy Noble Field
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State faces its fifth and final SEC Eastern Division opponent on its final weekend of competition in April when the Diamond Dogs (16-25, 4-14 SEC) play host to the Tennessee Volunteers (24-17, 10-8) in this weekend’s three-game conference series at Dudy Noble Field.
The series-opener is set for 6:30 p.m. CDT Friday, with State junior righty Chad Crosswhite (2-3, 9.89 ERA) matched with UT sophomore lefty Nick Hernandez (1-3, 5.10 ERA).
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and concludes with a 1:30 p.m. contest Sunday. Members of Mississippi State’s 1948 and 1949 SEC championship baseball teams will be honored prior to Saturday’s game, marking the 60th anniversary of the program’s first SEC championship.
The Diamond Dogs put runners on base but came up short in the timely hits category in dropping a pair of midweek games at Southern Miss. MSU stranded 25 runners during the series to bow 11-7 and 12-7 in Hattiesburg.
Heading into the series, the Bulldogs are led by freshmen Cody Freeman (.363) and Ryan Collins (.362) pace State at the plate heading into the series. Freeman, a catcher from Collinsville, Miss., has returned to the MSU batting order as the designated hitter after missing nine games with a knee injury. Collins, from Callaway, Fla., has hit safely in 10 of his last 12 games. Junior outfielder Grant Hogue from Hattiesburg, Miss., collected three hits in the midweek to extend his team-leading hitting streak to nine games. He also registered his SEC-leading 22nd stolen base, and now ranks seventh among State’s single season stolen base leaders.
Bulldog senior lefty Justin Pigott (2-1, 4.28) is slated to draw the start on Sunday, marking his first mound appearance at Dudy Noble Field since a mid-March shoulder injury. Pigott returned to the Bulldogs’ pitching rotation last weekend at Alabama, working five solid innings and allowing but two runs in State’s closely-contested 4-3 loss to the Crimson Tide.
Another member of the MSU pitching staff has returned to health and has been flourishing on the mound. Junior righty Aaron Weatherford (1-0, 4 saves, 0.00) has registered 33 strikeouts in 65 batters faced over 17.2 innings of relief (10 games). The Bulldog relief ace has allowed three hits and one unearned run while holding opposing hitters to a .055 batting average.
Tennessee, coached by first-year skipper Todd Raleigh, split its midweek contests in Knoxville, topping Appalachian State 12-4 and bowing to East Tennessee State 11-9. The Vols posted a 1-2 mark against Arkansas last weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., in a series that featured three one-run games and two extra-inning affairs. UT is paced by Kentrail Davis (.355), who leads the club with 35 RBI.