June 5, 2007

Polk puts Bulldogs back on the map in college baseball

Mississippi State's Ron Polk has seen most of it happen. He's guided the Bulldogs to the College World Series five times. He returned to State in 2002 and kept the Bulldogs on the winning track.

They just had trouble getting out of an NCAA regional tournament.

Until now.

Mississippi State baseball is back. The Bulldogs stormed into Tallahassee, Fla., and twice beat Florida State, the No. 6 national seed, at Dick Howser Stadium. It wasn't a day of Seminole mourning at FSU, but from what I understand, it was close.

Polk and Florida State coach Mike Martin are close friends, so he went out of his way to say good things about the Seminoles and their fans. The bottom line is the Bulldogs put it all together when it counted, in the NCAA Tournament. They're two victories away from State's first berth in the College World Series since 1998, which was Pat McMahon's first season with the Bulldogs after succeeding Polk.

Which represented back-to-back trips to Omaha.

"Were they stunned in Tallahassee? I don't know about that," Polk said in a telephone interview Monday night. "They were disappointed, sure, because you're supposed to win at home. You're expected to win.

"I've been on a bus all day. Somebody in the press conference said Florida State had won seven straight regionals at home. We lost a chance to host (a regional tournament) in the last three weeks of the regular season. Our kids knew what they were up against."

Mississippi State is back in an NCAA Super Regional for the first time since 2001, which was McMahon's final season in Starkvegas. State breezed through a regional in Columbus, Ohio (I actually saw George Steinbrenner there; like Frank Costanza of "Seinfeld" fame, I wanted to know why he traded Jay Buhner) and the Bulldogs had to travel to the West Coast for a Super Regional with the Cal State-Fullerton Titans.

State lost two straight to Fullerton. Polk, meanwhile, was taking Georgia to the CWS.

(Incidentally, Steinbrenner ignored me. Figures.)

Picayune's Justin Pigott pitched State past FSU in the pivotal winners' bracket game on Saturday night, guiding the Bulldogs to a 3-0 victory. Pigott worked seven innings before yielding to hard-throwing closer Aaron Weatherford, who earned his fourth save of the season.

"Justin Pigott gets the maximum out of his ability," Polk said.

Pigott's a gamer. The Bulldogs have the Magnolia State's best player in junior catcher Edward Easley, who like Ole Miss shortstop Zach Cozart will be chosen in the first few rounds of Thursday's free-agent amateur draft. Jeffrey Rea became MSU's all-time hits leader in Tallahassee. Brian LaNinfa, a senior from Venice, Fla., is one of State's "program guys" who understand their role with the team and make things happen.

Now Mississippi State turns its attention to Clemson, and Mike Bianco's Rebels think about their long trip to play Arizona State in a best-of-three Super Regional. Chad Crosswhite and Pigott will start the first two games for the Bulldogs. Bianco will again turn to Will Kline and Lance Lynn in his team's first two games against Arizona State.

Could it actually happen?

Could Mississippi State and Ole Miss both make it to the College World Series in the same year?

I'm not sure. But I sure wouldn't bet against it. They're both playing their best baseball at the right time of the season, when things change from pitch to pitch and mistakes are magnified.

Polk said the return of injured players such as Weatherford and shortstop Brandon Turner made a big difference. Then again, maybe the Bulldogs have finally gotten used to the road.

"Over the last month or so," Polk said, "we've gone to Clarksville, Tenn., to play two games with Austin Peay (which twice beat State and nearly upset No. 1-ranked Vanderbilt on Friday night), we've gone to play an SEC series at Georgia, we went to Hoover for the SEC Tournament and then last week, Tallahassee.

"You come back from the road, try to get a couple things done, pack your bags again and get ready to go play again. Hey, maybe it's not that bad after all."

Unless you're the Seminoles, of course.

Jim Mashek can be reached at 896-2333 or jwmashek@sunherald.com