The Dawg

Mississippi State Sports Blog

Great to be a Dawg!

Filed Under Mississippi State Sports | Posted on August 31, 2007

Well the 2007 season opener has come and gone.  I didn’t make it to Starkvegas last night instead I decided to watch from the comforts of home on ESPN HD.  I don’t even know where to start, but I will try to sum it up for those who didn’t watch.  If you have any game over the past three seasons it was the same thing all over again.

Thumbs UP

  1. The Defensive Effort - much like last year these guys came to play, they just didn’t know they would be on the field all night.
  2. ESPN’s interview with Jackie
  3. The Crowd - give our fans credit, they were loud and enthusiastic
  4. ESPN’s new Thursday night crew - I thought they did a good job.  It was a good mix in the booth.

 Thumbs DOWN

  1. What was up with the Ole Miss commercial during the first quarter?  That was nice!
  2. #7 - we heard the stories of his struggles during camp, but obviously they were dead on.  That was probably his worst performance in Maroon.
  3. Play calling - it was raining, it was muddy, and Anthony Dixon was a beast early on.  So we air it out all night, thats brilliant.
  4. Penalties - sure they blew the call on the flea flicker, but we killed ourselves with stupid penalties. 

Whats next?

Tulane next weekend.

The questions?

Will the offense recover?  Will Henig bounce back?  Will they defense stick together?  Will we open the playbook?  We will just have to wait and see.

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MSU news and links at CWS

Filed Under Mississippi State Sports | Posted on June 14, 2007

Here are some links from around the web:

More to come

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The Dawgs are headed to Omaha!

Filed Under Mississippi State Sports | Posted on June 9, 2007

#17 Bulldogs Advance to Omaha With 8-5 Win Over #5 Clemson Saturday

Tigers’ season comes to an end with a 41-23 record.

June 9, 2007

Starkville, MS -

Mississippi State scored four runs in the second inning thanks to a Tiger error and never trailed again to defeat #5 Clemson 8-5 on Saturday in front of 13,715 fans at Dudy Noble Field in the Starkville Super Regional. The #17 Bulldogs advanced to the College World Series with the win and improved to 38-20 on the season. The Tigers ended their season with a 41-23 record.

Starter Justin Pigott (7-6) earned the win, as he allowed nine hits, five runs (four earned), and one walk with three strikeouts in 6.0 innings pitched. Mitch Moreland picked up his second save of the season by retiring the last two batters of the game.

Tiger starter David Kopp (6-3) suffered the loss. The junior righthander allowed five hits, five runs (two earned), and two walks in 1.2 innings pitched.

In the top of the first inning, the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead. Jeffrey Rea led off with a walk on four pitches and Brandon Turner followed with a single through the right side. Edward Easley’s flyball to deep left field moved Rea to third, then Moreland’s groundout to first plated Rea.

Clemson came right back and took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the first. Wilson Boyd hit a one-out single through the right side and Marquez Smith followed with a single to left field. After Andy D’Alessio’s walk loaded the bases, Taylor Harbin hit a deep flyball to left field, allowing Boyd to score on the sacrifice fly. Doug Hogan followed with a two-out single to center to score Smith. The hit extended Hogan’s hitting streak to 15 games.

The Bulldogs responded with four runs in the top of the second inning thanks to a costly Tiger error. Joseph McCaskill led off with a single up the middle. Russ Sneed then hit a potential double-play grounder to short, but Harbin booted the ball. Wyn Diggs followed with a flyball to shallow left-center that fell for a single to load the bases with no outs. Jet Butler lined a double down the right-field line to plate McCaskill and Sneed, and Rea reloaded the bases with a walk. Turner then grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, but Diggs scored on the play. Edward Easley upped the Bulldogs’ lead to 5-2 with a two-out, line-drive single to left to score Butler.

Clemson narrowed Mississippi State’s lead to two runs in the fourth inning when Hogan led off with a solo home run down the left-field line into the wind, his 13th of the season. Two batters later, Addison Johnson reached on an infield single to first base and went to second when the throw went into the dugout. J.D. Burgess followed with a double down the left-field line to score Johnson, cutting Mississippi State’s lead to 5-4.

The Bulldogs got those two runs back in the top of the fifth inning. Moreland led off with a double to left-center and Brian LaNinfa advanced Moreland to third with a flyball to deep left-center. After McCaskill walked, Sneed doubled down the left-field line to score Moreland. Diggs’ groundout to second with the infield playing back plated McCaskill.

In the sixth inning, Johnson hit a one-out triple to right-center and scored on Burgess’ groundout to shortstop.

The Bulldogs added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. Nick Hardy hit a one-out triple to right field and scored when Sneed’s pop up fell in shallow center for a single.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Clemson sent the potential tying run to the plate with one out, but D’Alessio flied out to deep right and Harbin struck out to end the game.

Moreland, McCaskill, and Sneed each had two hits apiece to pace Mississippi State. The Tigers, who outhit the Bulldogs 12-11, were led offensively by Smith and Hogan, who had three hits apiece. Johnson added two hits and two runs scored as well.

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McMahon Gone

Filed Under General Sports | Posted on June 8, 2007

From Baseball America

Another SEC Coaching Change

Posted Jun. 7, 2007 6:44 pm by Aaron Fitt
Filed under: Around The Nation

Less than a week after Tennessee fired coach Rod Delmonico, another 2005 College World Series participant from the Southeastern Conference axed its coach, as well. Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley announced that Pat McMahon will not return as the Gators’ coach in 2008. The Gators reached the CWS championship series against Texas in 2005, but they have missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons.

“After an honest and open evaluation, I felt a change in leadership was necessary to have the baseball program be in a position to consistently rank among the nation’s best,” Foley said. “We certainly appreciate everything that Pat has done for the program, but it is time to move in a different direction. We thank him for all of his efforts and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. We will begin a national search immediately.”

To some degree, McMahon is a victim of the recent success of Florida’s football and basketball teams, which are both reigning national champions. But that doesn’t mean McMahon deserved his fate. He led the Gators to the NCAA tournament in four of his six seasons in Gainesville, compiling a 241-132-1 record, and he guided the team to its first two super-regional appearances ever.

McMahon and his staff brought in an excellent recruiting class last year, but the 2007 Gators were very young, and it’s a real shame McMahon wasn’t allowed to help his exciting young core mature. Florida will be a good club the next two years, and whoever inherits this job will have McMahon to thank. McMahon, widely respected by his peers, was one of three coaches on the NCAA’s special APR enhancement committee. He also is an incredibly nice man, and he deserved better.

McMahon’s assistants, Ross Jones, Don Norris and Tim Parenton, also were let go. Florida’s pitching has been a significant problem in recent years as the Gators were unable to develop consistent starting pitching and depended heavily on their bullpen. The team’s 5.27 ERA this year helped doom it to a 29-30 record, causing the team to miss regionals for the second straight year.

As for potential replacements, you’d have to think former Louisiana State coach Smoke Laval and current College of Charleston coach John Pawlowski would be strong contenders for both the Florida job and the Tennessee job. A couple of wild cards in Knoxville might be Southern California assistant Bill Mosiello and UC Irvine coach Dave Serrano, who have both served as Tennessee assistants (though it’s hard to imagine Serrano leaving the West Coast). If Florida wants to hire an up-and-coming assistant coach, it might look at Clemson’s Kevin O’Sullivan, Tulane’s Mark Kingston, Baylor’s Mitch Thompson or Miami’s J.D. Arteaga. Arteaga figured to be a favorite for Florida International’s vacant coaching job, but word has it Delmonico has his eye on that job, and the Golden Panthers would likely jump at a candidate with Delmonico’s high profile.

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MSU VS Clemson

Filed Under Mississippi State Sports | Posted on June 8, 2007

I got this from the Baseball America website, I have no idea who wrote it.  It was obviously someone who has played us.

MISSISSIPPI STATE (36-20)Coach (Record at school): Ron Polk (1,114-555-2, 28 seasons).
CWS History: Seven trips to Omaha, last in 1998.
CWS Route: Won Tallahassee regional in three games, beating Florida State in final.

“They’re really veteran, Ron (Polk) redshirts a lot of guys their freshman year, he ends up having a lot of guys who are there five years. They’ve got a lot of seniors, guys who seem like they’ve been there forever. Even the redshirt freshmen have been there. It’s a veteran club, and they play well together. Their pitchers, there’s no dominant guy on the mound, not like there’s a guy that’s just a dominant guy.  Just a very average pitching staff. If you’re swinging it well you can hit them. They throw strikes.

“Jeffrey Rea seems like he’s been there forever at second base. I think they were last in the SEC in pitching this year. Just a lot of veteran guys that played and have been around. There’s not a superstar guy that really jumps out at you. Probably the most talented guy is Easley, the catcher. They’re just a solid club. I was not surprised that they won in Tallahassee at all, because they’re a veteran club that’s well put together. It’s not a team that’s like a Vanderbilt or Arkansas.

“Crosswhite is not (Mississippi’s) Lance Lynn. He’s not one of those guys. Their pitching numbers were terrible for most of the year. But to their credit, those guys got better and better as the year went on. Crosswhite is an 89-92, slurve guy. (Lefthander Justin) Pigott is low 80s, 82-85 with a plus-plus changeup. They’re just dudes, just guys. Josh Johnson’s got a good arm, just kind of a guy. Just a 90 guy. Weatherford, he’s their hardest thrower. He’s been their go-to guy. He’s legit 90-92, bumped 93 against us, with a slider, their hardest thrower. But they pound the zone, look at their walks to strikeouts, that’s the key.

“They’re not aggressive offensively. There’s nothing really that special. They’re solid, they just play. The thing about Mississippi State is it just depends when you catch them. They have the ability to go into Tallahassee and roll off three Ws. They’re not going to steal bases, there’s never been a Ron Polk team that steals bases. That’s not their M.O. They just pretty much sit back and play station to station. Rea can run and Goforth can run, but look at their numbers, they don’t steal a lot of bases. That’s not their style, they play station to station, base to base. If they’re hitting, they’re going to win. Clemson with their pitching, I don’t think it’s a tall task to stop them from hitting.

“It’s not hard to play there at all. They have big crowds, but they’re older. It’s not a hard place to play. Not a very vicious crowd. It’s a big crowd, but not vicious.”

CLEMSON (41-21)Coach (Record at school): Jack Leggett (649-280, 14 seasons).
CWS History: 11 trips to Omaha, last in 2006.
CWS Route: Won Myrtle Beach regional in three games, beating Coastal Carolina in the final.

“I’ll tell you this, I think they might have the best pitching remaining of the field. When you look at their ability to go with Moskos on Friday, Kopp on Saturday, and they can match up as they need to on Sunday with (righthander D.J.) Mitchell or the lefty (Ryan) Hinson, depending on matchup. They have two guys in bullpen who can be lights out. Maybe the only thing they didn’t show you is a lefty specialist, but with Hinson in the ‘pen, maybe they’ve addressed that.

“With Chalk in the lineup, Clemson’s a different team. He’s a run producer, he gets on base, a catalyst, tremendous experience– a three-year starter, been to Omaha. I think Clemson’s a team to be reckoned with. I think any time you lose a shortstop, especially a good one like Stan Widmann, any ballclub in college is going to scramble. College baseball, parity’s staring you in the face when you look at these matchups. It makes it much more difficult to overcome injuries. I think you saw them have to adjust and scramble, but in the end, this time of year, pitching wins games. They’ve got the pitching to win games, especially if D’Alessio and (shortstop Taylor) Harbin and Chalk do what they can do. To me their quiet hero is (catcher Doug) Hogan, if you took him from this team they’d really be in trouble. He’s gotten a lot of key hits and he catches games well.

“We saw Moskos, he was good. Reports I’ve gotten say his fastball has backed up as the season’s gone on. We saw him 90-94, with a good slider, good changeup, good curveball. Four good pitches. The fastball and slider can be overpowering. He’s a guy. I think they could possibly have the best pitching mix of any team left in the tournament. I think Clemson’s arms are better than (North) Carolina’s. Their pitching in a three-game series is a strength. Right now they’re slugging the bats well, but they’re very capable of winning a 3-2 game. I like their team, they play hard, and those two guys at the back of the bullpen, Clyne and (righty Alan) Farina, have plus stuff and aggression. Offensively, having Chalk back is huge, he sets the table, creates pressure on the defense, gives RBI opportunities to D’Alessio, Smith and Harbin. And don’t forget about Hogan, the quiet clutch guy, I think he’s the leader for them too. Good team, and capable of comeback wins. Late in the year, they believe they can come back and win.”

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