What Stood Out this Weekend from Mississippi State Baseball against Mount St. Mary

What helped the Bulldogs get their first sweep of the year?

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State Bulldogs got a much-needed 4-0 week including a series sweep over Mount St. Mary. This was perhaps the most complete weekend of the season to this point for the Bulldogs.

What stood out this weekend at Dudy Noble Field?

Starting Pitching Again

This has made an appearance every weekend, so it should be expected at this point, but once again, the weekend rotation for MSU was fantastic. However, every start was special this weekend, and each can be argued as the best.

On Thursday, Nate Dohm just blew his mid-90s fastball past batter all night as he finished with eight strikeouts and only allowed a run in seven innings of work. He also mixed his off-speeds well, and that will be important because he cannot rely only on a fastball when SEC play comes around.

Khal Stephen bounced back nicely after an awful start against Georgia Southern last week. Stephen was terrific in his six innings of work, as he allowed no runs and struck out nine.

Like Dohm, Stephen controlled his fastball well and blew it by Mountaineer batters. Finally, Jurrangelo Cijnte pitched 6.2 innings and allowed no runs while striking out a career-high ten batters.

His stuff is so impressive, whether the electric fastball or his nasty slider with a lot of break. The most remarkable part of his performance was when he returned in the seventh, already 100 pitches into his outing, and the sophomore was still pumping in 96 MPH heaters.

Bottom of The Lineup Production

That was a key to the series for MSU going into the weekend. The top of the Bulldog lineup had been hitting well, but the bottom half were all slumping.

However, they turned around thanks to Connor Hujsak and Dylan Cupp. The pair only had six hits on the weekend but drove in six runs.

The Bulldogs do not need their 7-9 hitters batting above .300, but they do need them to drive in runs in clutch situations when given the chance.

David Mershon

Mershon is the heart and soul of this team and has already proven to be a top hitter. The switch hitter is batting .500 now and finished the weekend with seven hits.

The South Carolina native also returned to the field and played an excellent second base this weekend. MSU lacked energy in the first two weeks, but Mershon has provided the Bulldogs with a spark plug.

This was an excellent week for MSU, and there were rare negatives in any game. However, MSU, with four losses, is behind the eight-ball and has run out of wiggle room.

With the always-tough SEC schedule, the Bulldogs must continue to stack wins. Mississippi State will have four games next week, including a game away from the friendly confines of Dudy Noble Field.

MSU will travel to Pearl to take on Southern Miss at 6 p.m. TV broadcast has yet to be announced. 

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