More Fun, Plenty of Strikeouts, Six Top 12 Nationally Teams, SEC Wins 8-1 in Games

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Former Mississippi State Baseball SID Bo Carter brings you this article from Monday at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, TX. And who other than Bo would remember the Koestler Bakery family with Carlisle Koestler on the mound for the Dogs.

By Bo Carter, Bcarter@footballfoundation.com – Sports Page DFW, The Texas Sports Daily

ARLINGTON, Texas – Plenty of runs, tons of more strikeouts by 90-miles-per-hour-plus pitchers, ESPN highlight plays afield.

That was Day 3 of the Big 12-SEC State Farm College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field Monday in the hotly-contested, nine-game extravaganza with the Southeastern Conference capturing seven of the first eight contests, and the Big 12 scraping for runs and victories.

Mississippi State, 2-1 in the meet with wins over No. 10 Texas and No. 4 Texas Tech (the latter coming by a 11-5 count Monday), had its pitching staff strike out 41 hitters over 27 innings. Only a 3-2 setback to No. 11 TCU kept the Bulldogs from closing 3-0.

The No. 7 nationally Bulldogs also flexed home run muscles with four homers – two each by Luke Hancock and leadoff man Rowdey Jordan – in the three tilts after State managed just 11 in 16 games during the COVID-19 abbreviated 2020 outing.

The Red Raiders, suffering from some control problems and late-inning relief woes, were hanging with the Dawgs at 6-5 through eight innings and yielded a five-spot in the top of the ninth for MSU’s final tallies. Tech shortstop Cal Conley produced a 2-for-5 morning/afternoon to lead a six-hit attack while leftfielder Dru Baker drove in two of the Red Raiders five runs.

State pitchers were mowing down Tech hitters with 15 whiffs but also issued a season-high 10 walks and hit four opposing batsmen. A key to the triumph was the MSU mound corps stranding 13 batters – at least one LOB in seven of the nine frames. Carlisle Koestler of the famed Vicksburg, Miss., Koestler Bakery family got the win in relief for the Bulldogs.

“This let us learn a little more (about the MSU team) than what we would in a normal weekend,” said Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis. “We were seeing some guys in special situations, and just getting to see some of them pitch over the weekend against this competition. We were down a bunch of arms coming into this week, and we sold this to our guys and had success.”

No. 6 Ole Miss then continued its school-record skein of 19 consecutive victories (16 to end the ’20 season) by topping the Texas Longhorns 8-1 behind 13 strikeouts by three Ole Miss pitchers (eight in the first six innings by winning pitcher Derek Diamond). UT will return to Austin for a four-game series to open the home season against BYU Wednesday-Saturday. Bat contact will be a point of emphasis after three opponents zipped to 46 strikeouts by Longhorn hitters.

Cam Williams belted a solo homer to account for the Longhorns marker while UM leadoff man Peyton Chatagnier of Cypress, Texas, set the table for the Rebels attack with a 3-for-4 day and a pair of runs. The triumph also clinched at least a tie for the top record in the tourney at 3-0 prior to 2-0 Arkansas meeting TCU later Monday.

No. 8 Arkansas advanced to the Monday nightcap against the Horned Frogs with renewed feelings about the pitching staff following the two-hit, 15-strikeout night against traditional rival Texas Sunday night.

TCU took an early 1-0 lead in another classic mound duel on an RBI single in the bottom of the second inning by – of all people – No. 9 hitter and rightfielder Luke Boyers. The extended weekend pitching mastery was evident again as the two mound staffs combined for 22 strikeouts (13 by TCU) and yielded just four hits through the first seven innings.

Then the Razorbacks again provided their late-game heroics with a pair of runs in the eighth and ninth innings (they rallied from a 9-8 deficit to Tech Saturday to score five runs in the final regulation frame to win 13-9 early Sunday morning). Catcher Jake Opitz provided an RBI double and then scored on a wile pitch to stake the Hogs to a 4-1 advantage before TCU batted in the bottom of the ninth.

The Horned Frogs had the tying run at the plate in catcher Zach Humphreys with two me aboard in the bottom of the ninth before Kevin Kopps struck him out to cap off another 18-K dominance by the Arkansas pitching staff.

“That (13-9 opening win over Texas Tech) was crazy,” said Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn. “Both teams really didn’t play very well. It was an opener. Then the win over Texas was one where you were looking for a big hit or maybe a mistake to win the game, and the two pitchers were tremendous in that (4-0) shutout. We went into the TCU game Monday night with a lot of confidence.”

The 3-0 Rebels and Razorbacks and 2-1 Bulldogs now head back to their respective campus sites with some glowing ELO ratings – all Top 10 nationally – and bragging rights over one of the toughest conferences nationally.