No. 15 Dogs Test No. 19 Rebs In Pearl At Inaugural Governor's Cup Game
Played the past 27 years at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson, Miss., and known previously as the Mayor's Trophy Game, the Governor's Cup makes its debut at three-year old Trustmark Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves' Class AA franchise, the Mississippi Braves.
A pair of left-handers are slated for starting pitching duties in the game. True freshman Tyler Whitney (3-1, 6.91) of Lakeland, Tenn., will open on the hill for the Bulldogs. Whitney worked a season-longest six innings, registered a career-high eight strikeouts and earned his third win of the campaign in last Wednesday's 5-1 win over South Alabama at Trustmark Park. Mississippi will counter with sophomore left Craig Rodriguez (1-2, 4.26).
The Bulldogs enter the week with an SEC-leading .339 team batting average and three Bulldogs rank among the SEC's top 10 hitters to open the week. Freshman shortstop Brandon Turner, currently riding a 12-game hitting streak, is second with a .421 average, while junior catcher Edward Easley (.405) is fourth and junior first baseman Mitch Moreland (.363) stands 10th.
MSU claimed a rain-abbreviated SEC series win at Tennessee over the weekend, notching a 4-3 win in Friday's series opener in Knoxville before rains washed away the final two games of the series. They were the second and third rainouts in the past five games for Mississippi State.
A 2-0 showing last week helped inch MSU up in the latest college baseball national rankings. The Bulldogs, winners in six of their last seven games and nine of their last 11, are ranked 15th by Collegiate Baseball newspaper. MSU is 18th in this week's USA TODAY/ESPN coaches poll and the NCBWA writers polls and 20th in the latest Baseball America rankings.
Mississippi, which leads the SEC with a sparkling .980 fielding percentage and ranks second in the league with a 3.13 staff earned run average, is ranked 19th in both the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches poll and the NCBWA writers rankings.
Tuesday's game ends a scheduled nine-game, four-state road run for the Bulldogs, whose last game at Dudy Noble Field came April 3 when State topped Louisiana-Monroe 17-7. MSU opens the second half of its 10-weekend SEC schedule at home this weekend, entertaining longtime SEC West rival Louisiana State (21-16-1, 6-8-1 SEC) in a three-game series.