This weekend sees UGA making their first visit to Starkville since 2010. It’ll also mark my first ever visit to the bright lights of Starkville and after this weekend, I’ll be able to say that I’ve seen UGA play baseball on every campus in SEC.
Miss State comes in at 15-6-1 and sports a 12-4 home record. They opened the season losing to Florida Atlantic in a three team home tourney. The next day, Miss State beat South Dakota State, before losing again the Owls, this time in shutout fashion. Miss State concluded the weekend by blasting South Dakota State in a 10 run, 7 inning win.
The Bizzaros followed that up with another three team tourney, this time sweeping UMass Lowell and Nichols State. After beating Alcorn State by two TDs, Miss State pitching had thrown a shutout in three of the their last four games.
Mississippi State then boarded an airplane and headed west, to participate in the Dodgertown Classic, still my all time favorite baseball weekend when played there in 2011. It was truly a mixed bag for Miss State. They dropped a tight 2-1 game at UCLA on Friday night, then rebounded to beat Southern Cal on Saturday. A travel curfew ended their Dodger Stadium experience against Oklahoma in 5-5 tie. Dad gum, I wish it had been us out there instead of hosting Wright State.
After a midweek win against our friends from South Alabama, Miss State made a very loud statement by sweeping a then top ten Oregon team, outscoring the Ducks by 13 runs on the weekend. Miss State was then surprisingly swept in midweek action by the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in an extra innings affair before losing to Oral Roberts. We all know Miss State took 2/3 from Vanderbilt last weekend, including a marathon win on Friday night in 13 innings. Miss State then beat Mississippi Valley State 16-1 on Tuesday night, though I hear Jerry Rice didn’t play.
It’s safe to say that we’re running into a confident team this weekend. I can’t imagine anyone had a more impressive two weekend stretch than these guys. Their first two weekends were a bit questionable, but it’s safe to say that they are more battle tested than we are.
Tonight we’ll see Dakota Hudson, a big right handed junior from Dunlap Tennessee. Mississippi State is going with their #1 on “short” rest… Huh. Hudson has enjoyed a strong career with the Bizzaro Bulldogs and enters this season is a pre-season All American, as a consensus top 20 college prospect for the 2016 draft. He pitched out of the bullpen last year mainly and held SEC hitters to a .233 average against over 12 innings pitched. He’s off to a good start this year, going 2-1 in 5 appearances, all starts, and posting 1.38 ERA. In 32 2/3 innings, he’s struck out 40 and walked 17. Of the 20 hits he has allowed, 17 have been singles. Opponents are hitting .172 against him. Bear in mind this includes both Vanderbilt and a good hitting Florida Atlantic team, as well as a pretty good Oregon team too. I was able to find something of a scouting report on Hudson, which indicates that he’ll throw a 93-95 fastball and a slightly slower cutter, which is a very effective against lefties (so we’ll probably see it a lot). He has a pretty good changeup and a “projectable” curve, but doesn’t seem to throw either very often (or, didn’t do so last weekend). Hudson appears to be a ground ball pitcher.
We’ll see Austin Sexton on Friday night. Sexton is a bit smaller than Hudson. The junior righty calls Huntsville Alabama his home. He was a regular member of the Miss State rotation last year and lead the squad in strikeouts with 61 (which does not seem like an overly high number- Ryan Lawlor had 84 last season and David Sosebee had 55 in only 8 starts). He also had the lowest batting average allowed at .242. Sexton’s numbers aren’t quite as strong as Hudson’s, but they’re still pretty good. He’s 2-1 on the year in 5 starts with a 4.15 ERA. He’s throw 30 1/3 innings and has a 37/11 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .270 against him. He was pretty good last weekend in Nashville, throwing 6 innings and allowing 8 hits, 4 runs, with 7 strikeouts, but 4 walks (lot of base runners). He threw 118 pitches.
The Bizzaros have left things TBD for Saturday. They have been starting Daniel Brown, a smallish left handed junior from Tyler Texas. Brown has failed to get past the 4th inning in two of his last three starts, though, and was really roughed up Nashville last Sunday.
Mississippi State’s offensive numbers are solid and they enjoy contributions throughout their lineup. Jack Kruger is a right handed hitting catcher from Calabasses California. He’s off to a very strong start, hitting .380/.490/.620 with 3 HRs and is tied for team lead with 22 RBIs. Kruger has K’d 15 times and walked 16.
Jacob Robson is a junior left handed hitting CF from Windsor Ontario, north of the border. He’s a lot of what you look for in a leadoff hitter, it appears. .361/.490/.494. Walked 21 times, struck out 16, and is 10/11 in steals.
Ryan Gridley, the sophomore right handed hitter is from Alpharetta Georgia, should probably be in our dugout this weekend. I don’t know his story. The 2nd baseman will hit closer to the bottom of their order and is .305/.370/.378. Miss State had Adam Frazier, from Watkinsville, in their middle IF a few years back. He was one of their main cogs on their CWS team in 2013 as I recall. Need to get these local middle infielders here.
Though his offensive numbers aren’t very impressive so far, Atlanta Braves fans (like me) may have wondered if Elih Marrero was any kin to 2004 Braves’ LF Eli Marreo (who split time with fan favorite Charles Thomas, as I recall). Elih is the son of Eli. Pretty neat, although it makes me feel kind of old (Nathaniel Lowe a junior 1B from Marietta is not the son of “fan favorite” Derrick Lowe, in case you were curious).
Miss State doesn’t run an awful lot, but they’re very good at it when they do, converting 24/28 stolen bases. They are fielding at a .978 clip. As an offense, Miss State is hitting .311/ .410/ .458. That’s good by itself, but especially when you look at their schedule.
Last year Mississippi State went 24-30 overall and only 8-22 in the league. They finished in last place. They played 11 first year players on Opening Night this year. I don’t follow their program closely, but I don’t think they’re playing too much of the “we are young/ inexperienced” card. They do appear to have rebounded very nicely, at least to this point, from a disastrous year a season ago. We’ll see some big crowds this weekend, but we would have seen those anyway… I know enough to know baseball is a really big deal out there. It’s not easy this weekend and it’s not going to be easy moving forward. After we play these guys, we go home to see a team that just won a series at LSU, then we go on the road to see a top ten team that just won a series at Auburn, then we come home to see a team that just swept Arkansas, then we go on the road to face the consensus #1 team in America, then we go on the road to see a consensus top ten team who has beaten us 8 straight times. This thing is daunting when we look at it from that far away. And this weekend as a whole is daunting too… But take it one inning at a time, one hitter at a time, and we can navigate it. We’ve got the pieces in our dugout to win this weekend.
Miss State comes in at 15-6-1 and sports a 12-4 home record. They opened the season losing to Florida Atlantic in a three team home tourney. The next day, Miss State beat South Dakota State, before losing again the Owls, this time in shutout fashion. Miss State concluded the weekend by blasting South Dakota State in a 10 run, 7 inning win.
The Bizzaros followed that up with another three team tourney, this time sweeping UMass Lowell and Nichols State. After beating Alcorn State by two TDs, Miss State pitching had thrown a shutout in three of the their last four games.
Mississippi State then boarded an airplane and headed west, to participate in the Dodgertown Classic, still my all time favorite baseball weekend when played there in 2011. It was truly a mixed bag for Miss State. They dropped a tight 2-1 game at UCLA on Friday night, then rebounded to beat Southern Cal on Saturday. A travel curfew ended their Dodger Stadium experience against Oklahoma in 5-5 tie. Dad gum, I wish it had been us out there instead of hosting Wright State.
After a midweek win against our friends from South Alabama, Miss State made a very loud statement by sweeping a then top ten Oregon team, outscoring the Ducks by 13 runs on the weekend. Miss State was then surprisingly swept in midweek action by the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in an extra innings affair before losing to Oral Roberts. We all know Miss State took 2/3 from Vanderbilt last weekend, including a marathon win on Friday night in 13 innings. Miss State then beat Mississippi Valley State 16-1 on Tuesday night, though I hear Jerry Rice didn’t play.
It’s safe to say that we’re running into a confident team this weekend. I can’t imagine anyone had a more impressive two weekend stretch than these guys. Their first two weekends were a bit questionable, but it’s safe to say that they are more battle tested than we are.
Tonight we’ll see Dakota Hudson, a big right handed junior from Dunlap Tennessee. Mississippi State is going with their #1 on “short” rest… Huh. Hudson has enjoyed a strong career with the Bizzaro Bulldogs and enters this season is a pre-season All American, as a consensus top 20 college prospect for the 2016 draft. He pitched out of the bullpen last year mainly and held SEC hitters to a .233 average against over 12 innings pitched. He’s off to a good start this year, going 2-1 in 5 appearances, all starts, and posting 1.38 ERA. In 32 2/3 innings, he’s struck out 40 and walked 17. Of the 20 hits he has allowed, 17 have been singles. Opponents are hitting .172 against him. Bear in mind this includes both Vanderbilt and a good hitting Florida Atlantic team, as well as a pretty good Oregon team too. I was able to find something of a scouting report on Hudson, which indicates that he’ll throw a 93-95 fastball and a slightly slower cutter, which is a very effective against lefties (so we’ll probably see it a lot). He has a pretty good changeup and a “projectable” curve, but doesn’t seem to throw either very often (or, didn’t do so last weekend). Hudson appears to be a ground ball pitcher.
We’ll see Austin Sexton on Friday night. Sexton is a bit smaller than Hudson. The junior righty calls Huntsville Alabama his home. He was a regular member of the Miss State rotation last year and lead the squad in strikeouts with 61 (which does not seem like an overly high number- Ryan Lawlor had 84 last season and David Sosebee had 55 in only 8 starts). He also had the lowest batting average allowed at .242. Sexton’s numbers aren’t quite as strong as Hudson’s, but they’re still pretty good. He’s 2-1 on the year in 5 starts with a 4.15 ERA. He’s throw 30 1/3 innings and has a 37/11 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .270 against him. He was pretty good last weekend in Nashville, throwing 6 innings and allowing 8 hits, 4 runs, with 7 strikeouts, but 4 walks (lot of base runners). He threw 118 pitches.
The Bizzaros have left things TBD for Saturday. They have been starting Daniel Brown, a smallish left handed junior from Tyler Texas. Brown has failed to get past the 4th inning in two of his last three starts, though, and was really roughed up Nashville last Sunday.
Mississippi State’s offensive numbers are solid and they enjoy contributions throughout their lineup. Jack Kruger is a right handed hitting catcher from Calabasses California. He’s off to a very strong start, hitting .380/.490/.620 with 3 HRs and is tied for team lead with 22 RBIs. Kruger has K’d 15 times and walked 16.
Jacob Robson is a junior left handed hitting CF from Windsor Ontario, north of the border. He’s a lot of what you look for in a leadoff hitter, it appears. .361/.490/.494. Walked 21 times, struck out 16, and is 10/11 in steals.
Ryan Gridley, the sophomore right handed hitter is from Alpharetta Georgia, should probably be in our dugout this weekend. I don’t know his story. The 2nd baseman will hit closer to the bottom of their order and is .305/.370/.378. Miss State had Adam Frazier, from Watkinsville, in their middle IF a few years back. He was one of their main cogs on their CWS team in 2013 as I recall. Need to get these local middle infielders here.
Though his offensive numbers aren’t very impressive so far, Atlanta Braves fans (like me) may have wondered if Elih Marrero was any kin to 2004 Braves’ LF Eli Marreo (who split time with fan favorite Charles Thomas, as I recall). Elih is the son of Eli. Pretty neat, although it makes me feel kind of old (Nathaniel Lowe a junior 1B from Marietta is not the son of “fan favorite” Derrick Lowe, in case you were curious).
Miss State doesn’t run an awful lot, but they’re very good at it when they do, converting 24/28 stolen bases. They are fielding at a .978 clip. As an offense, Miss State is hitting .311/ .410/ .458. That’s good by itself, but especially when you look at their schedule.
Last year Mississippi State went 24-30 overall and only 8-22 in the league. They finished in last place. They played 11 first year players on Opening Night this year. I don’t follow their program closely, but I don’t think they’re playing too much of the “we are young/ inexperienced” card. They do appear to have rebounded very nicely, at least to this point, from a disastrous year a season ago. We’ll see some big crowds this weekend, but we would have seen those anyway… I know enough to know baseball is a really big deal out there. It’s not easy this weekend and it’s not going to be easy moving forward. After we play these guys, we go home to see a team that just won a series at LSU, then we go on the road to see a top ten team that just won a series at Auburn, then we come home to see a team that just swept Arkansas, then we go on the road to face the consensus #1 team in America, then we go on the road to see a consensus top ten team who has beaten us 8 straight times. This thing is daunting when we look at it from that far away. And this weekend as a whole is daunting too… But take it one inning at a time, one hitter at a time, and we can navigate it. We’ve got the pieces in our dugout to win this weekend.
