State Visits Vandy In Battle Of Top 10 SEC Clubs
The series begins Friday at VU’s Charles Hawkins Field with a 6:30 p.m. game. Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS) will televise Saturday’s 12 p.m. game while the Sunday series finale is set for a 1 p.m. start.
Senior lefty Luis Pollorena (6-1, 3.38) is due to open on the mound Friday opposite Commodore junior lefty Kevin Ziomek (7-2, 2.20). State has designated senior righty Kendall Graveman (5-3, 2.06) for a Saturday start while sophomore lefty Jacob Lindgren (4-1, 2.54) is expected to open on the hill Sunday.
The Bulldogs are 10-2 in April and coming off SEC series wins against Florida (2-1), Texas A&M (3-0) and Auburn (2-1). Tuesday night in Memphis MSU registered a 12-1 midweek win over the University of Memphis before 3,428 fans at AutoZone Park. Second baseman Brett Pirtle went 4-for-5 and junior outfielder Hunter Renfroe smacked his SEC-leading 14th home run to highlight State’s 15-hit attack. Vanderbilt enjoyed similar midweek success with a 10-3 win Tuesday at No. 12 Louisville. Tony Kemp and Jack Lupo registered three-hit plate performances and Mike Yastrzemski and Vince Conde drove in a combined seven runs.
The largest crowd in MSU-VU series history (12,526) was looking on in the last Mississippi State-Vanderbilt meeting on the diamond. Meeting in the championship game of the 2012 SEC Baseball Tournament, the Bulldogs shut out the Commodores 3-0 to claim the program’s seventh SEC tournament title.
The radio broadcast of all three games can be heard on the statewide Bulldog Sports Network and online to HailstateTV subscribers (http://www.hailstate.com/hstvlive).
State plays seven of its final 10 regular season games at Dudy Noble Field, beginning with next weekend’s SEC Western Division series against Alabama (May 3-5). Game times are set for 6:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.