How does MS use the pitching rotation for the regional?

[NewsCopy]

STARKVILLE – John Cohen won’t wait anymore. Mississippi State’s coach saved the Bulldogs’ best starter until the second game of a series throughout the regular season.

That could all change now.

“In the postseason, there are very few tomorrows,” Cohen said. “So you do whatever you can do to win that game. Game 1 is critical. There is no Game 2.”

The rest of the story ...

[Dad04]

Were they one of the top 10 teams in the country? Hell no. I'd make an argument that they could not have beaten anyone that finished in the top half of a major conference, but they went 12-1 and the pollsters kept moving them up.

An objective eye would question their (UL) schedule. They'd look at the fact that their conference is rated 11th (thats below the threshold of decent) and that they really didn't play many good teams out of conference. They won 2 of 3 at Alabama and an early midweek against LSU. If you look deeper into that Alabama series, Bama was struggling and ULL won one of those games on two hits and two Bama errors. And they beat LSU in a five inning game that got shortened by rain.

These guys are a decent SunBelt team like South Alabama was last year. They won't go 2 and out because Jackson State and San Diego State are horrible, but we should expect to win this regional.

http://www.elitedawgs.com/showthread...-America/page2

Bad case of maroon colored glasses

[CajunRage]

http://www.elitedawgs.com/showthread...-America/page2

Bad case of maroon colored glasses

I hope their team thinks SDSU is horrible. We may not have to beat an SEC team to get out of this regional.

[DoubleDawg]

It's an interesting conundrum.

Ross Mitchell is the pitcher they're referring to. He's our most reliable starter and our best shot to go deep in a game. There's a big upside to him potentially going 9 innings, or even 7+ and saving our bullpen. If he gets the win and Holder has to pitch <2 innings, we'd be in great shape on day 2.

The downside to throwing Trevor Fitts (our Friday guy) is he's the one guy on the team that will NOT go deep in a game. That's not a knock on him, it's just the role he's in. He'll usually go twice through the lineup at most. If we don't get out to a lead (far from a given) and put our bullpen into a bind on Day 1, we probably don't recover from that.

With all that said, I've said all along Mitchell is our best shot at knocking out a great team (and one reason I thought we had a better shot of beating a National Seed in the regional format than best 2-of-3). His numbers won't wow you, though his ERA of 2.10 is nothing to sneeze at. He just gets results. He has 4 CG on the year in 11 starts. In the last three Game Twos of the regular season, he and Holder combined for 3 straight shutouts. He gave up 1 HR in 107 IP and generally is a ground ball machine. He just gives me the most confidence against a great HR hitting team.

As for his "stuff," it doesn't look like much. He's the very definition of a crafty lefty. Lanky guy who wears his pants funny, you're going to look at him warming up and say "We're going to rock this kid." You might do it, UK had success against him in his last outing in the SEC Tournament. But like I said, he and Holder are the two veteran guys I'd go to in a do-or-die situation.

[cajun4life]

DoubleDawg this isn't a shot at you, just something you stated kinda resonates with me and gets under my skin. We are not a HR hitting team. We are the purist baseball team in the country. We can dominate our opponent in every facet of the game. Our pitching staff can throw complete game shut outs, our bullpen has had 5 shaky outings all season but will close the door on you in a heartbeat. If our opponents pitching staff makes a mistake will will park it in the trees, if they pitch extremely well we will manufacture runs with the best of them. We get on base and force errors, we have more team speed than any other program in the country and we use it. We have one of the most athletic defenses in the country that will have 7 players drafter in the first 12 rounds.

We are not a one trick pony, we come at you and force you to play bad. We did it to everyone, including Alabama and LSU. People like to discredit our win over LSU because it was rain shortened. What they fail to mention is that we were up 4-1 with runners on 1st and 3rd with LSU already three guys into the pen. That game was going to be a route.

Now does all of that equate to winning the regional or a super? No way in hell, but there is no easy outs in this lineup and our best bat may not even start.

53-7 without losing a series in over a year. We have not lost two games in a row since last year. Unless we have a major let down we will be in Omaha.