State Treks To Pearl For Governor's Cup Matchup With Ole Miss
The two teams have evenly split the previous four Governor's Cup meetings played at the home of the Southern League's Class AA Mississippi Braves. MSU claimed wins in the first two Governor's Cup matchups (14-9 in 2007 and 6-5 in 2008), while Ole Miss has prevailed in the last two (8-1 in 2009 and 5-3 last year). Two weeks ago MSU topped Southern Miss 5-4 at Trustmark Park, notching its sixth win in 11 games in Pearl.
Sophomore right-hander Kendall Graveman (3-0, 3.45) will open ont he mound for State while UM, the designated home team for Tuesday’s game, will start senior lefty Matt Tracy (3-2, 4.46).
Mississippi State notched its seventh win against a ranked opponent Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville, Ark., closing out a three-game weekend series with a 5-3 win over the 13th-ranked Razorbacks. Sophomore Luis Pollorena recorded his fourth win of the season and Caleb Reed notched his sixth save, combining to blank Arkansas over the final seven frames. Reed allowed one hit and two base-runners in 5.1 innings of scoreless relief, lowering his seasonal earned run average to 0.88 in 16 appearances.
Senior third baseman Jarrod Parks recorded his 16th multi-hit game of the campaign and climbed to the top of the SEC's hitting charts with a .395 batting average. Parks also leads the league with a .517 on-base percentage and has now hit safely in 29 of his 35 games played.
Tuesday's game is the fourth in a run of 10 consecutive contests against SEC teams for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs host defending NCAA champion and league-leading South Carolina in a three-game weekend series at Dudy Noble Field and, following an exam week break, entertain divisional foe Alabama in a three-game, two-day graduation weekend series at State. That series begins Saturday, April 30 with a 2 p.m. doubleheader, the first scheduled SEC twinbill at Dudy Noble Field since May 15, 1993.