It All Evens Out in Baseball
I’ve heard it said many times: ‘it all evens out in baseball’. You get 10 or 11 bloop base hits in a year, you hit 10 or 11 line drives right at someone. You lose three games at the last at bat, you win three games on the last at bat. It all evens out.
Well, in light of Alabama’s 2-out bottom of the 9th two-run rally to win 8-7 on Sunday afternoon, I thought I’d check to see if things are evened out – or if we’re due some even-ing out over the next two series.
The games that stick out like a sore thumb are Game 1 of the LSU and South Carolina series, and then Game 3 of the Alabama series. Against LSU, State had a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the 10th but lost it after Caleb Reed couldn’t hold on. Against South Carolina, State had a 6-3 lead with two out in the bottom of the 8th but blew it to lose 7-6. Sunday’s game wasn’t so hard because MSU did overcome a 6-1 deficit to take the lead 7-6 in the top of the 9th before allowing the Tide to win it in walk-off fashion.
Against UConn, State trailed 4-0 going into the 7th, but put together five runs in the final three innings including two in the bottom of the 9th to win 5-4. Against Penn State, MSU was down 6-3 heading to the 7th, but put seven runs on the board over the next two innings to win it 10-6. Against Vanderbilt, State was down 4-0, but came back in the middle innings and won it 8-7. It’s a stretch, but State was down 2-0 to UT heading to the 6th and won 3-2 in 14 innings.
The Dawgs have dug themselves a hole a number of times only to come back to tie the game or take the lead and then end up losing it. Game 2 vs. Vandy, vs. Memphis, vs. Washington State, and maybe some others that I don’t recall (and looking through each box score is exhausting).
Has it evened out? I don’t know about that. MSU has suffered some tough losses in the all-important SEC games, and been the beneficiary in some non-conference ones.
Here is the current SEC standings with each team’s current seed in the SEC Tourney if the season ended today..
WEST
LSU, 16-8 (1)
Mississippi State, 12-12 (6)
Arkansas, 12-12 (7)
Ole Miss, 11-13 (9)
Auburn, 10-14 (10)
Alabama, 7-17 (N/A)
EAST
South Carolina, 16-8 (2)
Kentucky, 15-9 (3)
Florida, 14-10 (4)
Georgia, 12-12 (5)
Vanderbilt, 11-13 (8)
Tennessee, 8-16 (N/A)
After winning three straight series MSU got back into the Baseball America Top 25, at #25 (and Ole Miss dropped out, ha).
Chris Stratton has been named a finalist for the Ferriss Trophy (best college baseball player in Mississippi)….he should easily win that.