Mississippi State
35-23
Southern Miss
39-18
State Blanks USM 3-0 To Open NCAA Play; Meets Austin Peay Saturday
June 03, 2011 | Baseball
Playing in a regional for the first time since the 2007 Bulldogs made a magical run to the College World Series, MSU made the most of Friday's opportunity by beating an in-state rival in postseason baseball action for the first time ever. With the victory - the Bulldogs' third straight over the Golden Eagles - MSU improved to 35-23, while Southern Miss fell to 39-18.
The third-seeded Bulldogs now face No. 4 seed Austin Peay (34-22), a 2-1 upset winner Friday night over top-seeded host Georgia Tech. The MSU-APSU game is set for 6:06 p.m. CDT. Second-seeded Southern Miss will face the Yellow Jackets in a 2:06 p.m. CDT elimination game Saturday. All games in the Atlanta regional are being televised regionally by Comcast Sports Southeast and video streamed on NCAA.com (blacked out in CSS markets).
Pollorena (7-5) worked six innings, allowing five hits, with three walks and three strikeouts. Reed completed the contest with three innings of three-hit relief to garner his 12th save. Reed struck out four and walked only one while facing 13 batters in relief.
"Luis and Caleb both pitched brilliantly," said MSU head coach John Cohen, who notched his first regional victory with MSU. "We did what we had to do which was attack the strike zone. We are really pleased but we have a big challenge in front of us tomorrow."
The Bulldogs threw their sixth shutout of the season and first since Justin Pigott blanked Florida State 3-0 in a 2007 regional tournament game in Tallahassee, Fla. Coupled with last week's performance in the Conference USA Tournament, Southern Miss has now gone 25 straight innings without scoring.
"In a regional game, there is a lot of pressure," Pollorena said. "I just tried to get a zero up there in the first inning and go from there. I can't say enough about our defense."
The Maroon and White garnered all the offense it needed with a Nick Vickerson RBI-double in the first inning and a Brent Brownlee two-run single in the sixth inning.
In the first inning, C.T. Bradford drew a leadoff walk from Southern Miss ace Todd McInnis. Ryan Collins attempted a sacrifice; however, the bunt reached Collins and retired Bradford. After a lineout, Vickerson lined an RBI-double to left center.
While that would be enough offense, the Bulldogs did tack on two more scores in the sixth inning. Vickerson drew a leadoff walk. Jaron Shepherd followed with a single. A sacrifice-bunt by Cody Freeman advanced both runners. Brent Brownlee, a defensive substitution in the fourth inning, followed with a hard-hit two-run single back up the middle.
"It is kind of funny how the game finds you," Brownlee said. "You get put in the game and have to run a fly ball down hit deep in the gap. Offensively, you have a chance to help the team. The first pitch I saw was a slider, so I thought that he might come back with it."
The Bulldogs collected seven hits off McInnis (8-3), who threw his second straight complete game. The senior right-hander struck out six and walked two, while throwing 116 pitches. On a blistering warm afternoon, Pollorena threw a season-best 118 pitches.
"We had some really timely hits," Cohen said. "That was the difference in the ballgame."
Bradford was the lone Bulldog multiple hitter, with a pair of singles. Vickerson and Freeman had the squad's only extra-base hits.
Southern Miss finished with eight hits. B.A. Vollmuth, Marc Bourgeois and Mark Ellis each had two hits apiece.
Freshman righty Evan Mitchell (5-1, 3.49) will draw his sixth start of the year in Saturday's winner's bracket matchup with Austin Peay.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Pollorena, Luis (7-5)
L: McInnis (8-3)
S: Reed, Caleb (12)
Batting:
2B: Vickerson, Nick 1 ; Freeman, Cody 1
RBI: Vickerson, Nick 1 ; Brownlee, Brent 2
SH: Freeman, Cody 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Collins, Ryan 1 ; Vickerson, Nick 1 ; Shepherd, Jaron 1
CS: Freeman, Cody 1 ; Brownlee, Brent 1
Batting:
2B: Fowler 1
Base Running:
PO: Fowler 1
