By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - At only 19-19 overall and last in the SEC West at 5-10, the Mississippi State Bulldogs may not seem a major obstacle against the nationally No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks in this three-game SEC West series starting tonight in Starkville, Miss.
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn knows better.
Van Horn’s Razorbacks who are 28-10 and lead the SEC West with a 10-5 record, take on the Bulldogs at 6:30 tonight, 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday on SEC+ Internet video and the Razorbacks Radio Network.
The Bulldogs, now with pitching coach and former Kentucky head coach Gary Henderson in charge as interim coach, suffered early-season turmoil with coach Andy Cannizaro acknowledging making “poor decisions” as cause for his sudden resignation in February.
The turmoil reflected on March 16-18, as Vanderbilt swept the Bulldogs in the SEC season-opening in Starkville.
Apparently, the Bulldogs have regrouped.
They haven’t since been SEC swept. The Bulldogs won one of three in SEC series at Missouri and at 9-6 current SEC West runner-up LSU and at Auburn.
The Ole Miss Rebels, 8-7, are tied for third in the West with Texas A&M, would be tied with Arkansas at 10-5 had not Mississippi State upset them two of three two weekends ago in Starkville.
“I’ve watched a couple of their games or parts of them and some video, they still have pretty much the same amount of talent they’ve always had,” Van Horn said.
That talent last year propelled then first-year Cannizaro’s Bulldogs to a 40-27 overall record and 17-13 third-best in the SEC West.
“They’re probably just not as deep on the mound or in that bullpen, but they’ve got good players,” Van Horn said. “There were high expectations there this year. Obviously, they had a shakeup with the head coach and kind of threw them for a loop. They got off to a bad start. They’ve slowly rebounded. They beat Ole Miss a couple weeks ago at their place and they had a chance to beat Auburn and win that series. They’re like every team in our league. They’re dangerous.”
Center fielder Jake Magnum, hitting .354, and second baseman Hunter Stovall at .311 lead the Bulldogs in batting average. Shortstop Luke Alexander, though only hitting .238, leads their power with five home runs and 26 RBIs.
Lefties Konnor Pilkington, only 2-5 but a 2.87 ERA and 64 strikeouts against just nine walks in 56 innings, and Ethan Small, 3-3 with a 2.94 ERA and with 69 strikeouts likely will start the first two games of the series.
Right-hander Jacob Billingsley, 2-2 with a 4.00 ERA, also likely starts for the Bulldogs against an Arkansas rotation tonight through Sunday of Blaine Knight (6-0, 1.95 ERA), Kacey Murphy (5-2, 2.00 ERA) and Isaiah Campbell (3-3, 3.44 ERA).
Lefty closer Matt Cronin saved both games of last Saturday’s SEC doubleheader sweep of South Carolina at Baum Stadium won by Murphy and Campbell.
The Razorbacks hit the road off a 9-1 homestand, the latest being Tuesday night’s 11-7 non-conference victory over Missouri State, and one at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock in an April 10 victory over Grambling State.
However, the Razorbacks stand only 4-5 away from Arkansas, including losing two of three in SEC series at Florida and Ole Miss.
“You know we had a great homestand,” freshman left fielder Heston Kjerstad said. “But I think we are ready to prove we are a team that can not only win games at home, but also get some series wins on the road.”