State Takes On No. 7 South Carolina In Columbia
Friday's series-opener is set for a 6 p.m. (CDT) start and matches two of the SEC's top pitchers --- Bulldog junior righty Chris Stratton (7-0, 2.54) and Gamecock senior lefty Michael Roth (3-0, 1.98). Game two of the series is set for 3 p.m. (CDT) Saturday while the weekend finale is scheduled Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (CDT). Stratton leads the SEC with seven wins and ranks second with 67 strikeouts.
The radio broadcast of all three games will be carried on the statewide MSU Baseball Radio Network and offered online (www.HailState.com/hstvlive) as a subscription-based audio stream.
The Bulldogs have prevailed in three of their last four games, including a walk-off 8-7 Sunday win over Vanderbilt that clinched State's first SEC weekend series.
MSU backed that win with a 2-0 walk-off 12-inning victory over South Alabama. It was the first extra-inning triumph for the Bulldogs in five contests that have gone extra frames. The scoreless pitching duel ended on a towering home run by freshman first baseman Wes Rea.
The win came with a price tag for State. Infielder/outfielder Demarcus Henderson, struck by a pitch to open the winning inning, sustained a bone fracture in his hand on the play and will be sidelined an estimated two weeks. Henderson scored the game-winning run ahead of Rea's third roundtripper of the year.
Mississippi State opens the weekend leading the Southeastern Conference with 40 double plays, three of those in Tuesday's win over the Jaguars. The MSU pitching staff has tallied the SEC's third-most strikeouts, 304, while Bulldog hitters have been struck by a pitch 54 times, also third-most in the league.
A busy slate awaits State upon its return from South Carolina next week. MSU is the designated home team at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss., Tuesday for the sixth annual Governor's Cup game against instate SEC foe Ole Miss. MSU then hustles back to campus to prepare for a nationally-televised Thursday night game that opens a three-game, Super Bulldog Weekend series against SEC East foe Tennessee.