Mississippi State Falls to Northern Kentucky: The Night Was Cold, The Bats Were Colder
On a cold night for baseball, the Bulldog bats might have been even colder in the 7-6 loss against Northern Kentucky.
MSU only managed five hits in the affair to NKU’s 11. Couple that with the team’s ace, Landon Sims, having one of his poorest outings of his career, and it was a recipe for trouble from the outset.
The bottom line, though, is that they have to hit the fastball. If you can’t hit that, you can’t win games - plan and simple. Head coach Chris Lemonis knows this better than anyone.
“(We just were) not able to hit the fastball right now. If you watch us, we don’t hit the fastball. They throw it by us, we foul it back, we miss it. But we’re not hitting the fastball right now,” said Lemonis postgame.
Notice he didn’t say the team isn’t making contact, because they are. That’s not the issue. The issue is due in part, according to Lemonis, to the guys just trying to do to much right now.
“We’re a new team. I think everybody is trying to hit a tank. It looks like everybody is trying to hit a home run,” Lemonis added.
Either way, the bats have to be woken up, whether it’s by some shifting in the lineup, or a come to Jesus meeting like the team had after last Saturday’s loss to Long Beach State.
Luke Hancock is one of the veteran faces of this team, and he spoke about what the remedy might be going forward.
“We just have to get on base any way we can,” said Hancock to reporters after the game, “We all talk to each other and see what the other pitcher is doing. We get feedback from each other. We just have to put together good AB after good AB, and I think if we do that, we’ll start playing better.”
Hancock and the rest of the Diamond Dawgs will have the chance to do just that, as they face Northern Kentucky once more tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. for a chance to even up the series.