By Bobby Swofford
TIMES RECORD • BSWOFFORD@SWTIMES.COM
FAYETTEVILLE — Mississippi State closer Caleb Reed had pitched more than three innings just twice this season heading into the series finale against Arkansas.
Reed not only put in his longest outing of the season, but he shut down the Razorbacks as the Bulldogs posted a 5-3 win at Baum Stadium.
Reed threw 5 1/3 innings and did not allow a runner past first base en route to picking up his first win of the season.
The Bulldogs (22-14, 6-9) used a pair of pitchers in the first three innings and then brought Reed into the game during the fourth. Reed faced 17 batters and allowed just one hit and walked one.
Arkansas (26-9, 8-7) got three runs in the first two innings but was shut down in the final seven frames. The Razorbacks’ best chance to get to Reed came in the eighth after Kyle Robinson opened the inning with a walk. Dominic Ficociello followed with a line drive that looked like it would get into right field, but Mississippi State second baseman Sam Frost made the catch and then doubled Robinson off first base.
“It was a great play,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “(Frost) got about as high as he could get. About half that ball was hanging out of his glove. The ball was hit hard, was starting to sink maybe about the time it got to him. I thought it was going to get by him and we’d probably have runners on first and second, possibly first and third. It would have been interesting to have seen what happened but that’s baseball. It’s part of it. You line out. You flare it in. That is the way it goes.”
Reed struck out two and lowered his season ERA to a minuscule 0.88 in 30 2/3 innings of work. Reed’s previous long outing of the year was against Vanderbilt when he went five innings in the Bulldogs’ first SEC series.
“My defense played great behind me (Sunday),” Reed said. “I think they made three or four diving catches for me. (Assistant) coach (Butch) Thompson and I knew that I had to come in and throw strikes and that is what I did.
“I had to keep them off balance with fastballs and breaking balls. My catcher (Wes Thigpen) did a great job of calling pitches and getting to spots.”
Arkansas led 3-1 after two innings behind a two-run single from Robinson in the first and an RBI single by Bo Bigham in the second. Bigham’s single extended his hitting streak to 15 games.
Bigham went 1-of-5, including 0-of-2 against Reed, and flew out to left to end the game.
“He was just keeping us off balanced,” Bigham said of Reed. “He had a really good slider, had a good fastball. He could locate it and put it where he wanted and just kept us off balance.”
Arkansas pitchers struggled to find the strikezone for the duration. Mississippi St. drew seven walks and was hit by a pitch three times. The Bulldogs saw 163 pitches, an average of more than 18 per inning.
“That is something we really, really wanted to have an opportunity to do,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “You can’t do that unless it is given to you but that is what college baseball is. If you’re not getting (hit batters), if you’re not getting walks it is really hard to score for anybody. We’ve got to have those things in order to score.”
Jarrod Parks had two hits and drew two walks for the Bulldogs. Ficociello and Jarrod McKinney each had two hits for Arkansas.
Mississippi State’s Luis Pollorena came into the game in relief in the first inning and recorded an out without attempting a pitch. The left-hander picked off Robinson at first base to end the inning. Bulldog starter Evan Mitchell lasted just 2/3 of an inning while giving up two earned runs and faced only five batters.
