MSU News and Notes | Monday, May 7, 2012

Welcome back friends to another exciting week of work. Don't worry: Friday will come just as soon as it did last week, but before you get to fueling America's economy this morning, take time to check out all the news and notes from around Bulldog Country this weekend.

• We talked last week about how big this past weekend's MSU vs. Bama series was for State, and the dogs didn't disappoint. State took the first two games on the weekend series 3-1 and 3-2, respectively, before bowing out in the final inning of yesterday's game in an 8-7 loss to Bama. Yes it's disappointing to have the sweep in our grasps only to let it slip through our fingers, but a series win was what we needed so we'll walk away being happy about that.
  
• On Friday night, Chris Stratton was, stop me if you've heard this before, dominant in gaining his 9th (should be 11th) victory of the season in the 3-1 Bulldog win. Yes Stratton did scatter 7 hits, but they were in fact scattered and did not hurt him, as he again gave up a big goose egg on the scoreboard. In the process of gaining his 9th victory, Stratton moved his ERA further down to 2.19, and used 6k's to bump his strikeout total for the season up to 101.

• Saturday, State wrapped up the series with a 3-2 win using what they've been doing all year: solid pitching by committee and just enough hitting to get the win. Even though it got somewhat interesting in the 9th, State freshman Jonathan Holder finished off Alabama and State went into Sunday with a chance to break out the broom sticks.
• Sunday saw State overcome a 4 run deficit with 3 runs in the 8th and 2 in the 9th, only to give up 2 to Bama in the bottom of the 9th to lose 8-7. The loss wasn't awful, but with the lead in the 9th you always want to be able to come away with a win. I wasn't able to follow along with the game due to travel, but from what I understand John Cohen was quite upset about a foul ball call earlier in the inning before the double for the Crimson Tide that ended things. If that wasn't enough drama for you, a shouting match between MSU pitching coach Butch Thompson and a UA Campus Police Officer broke out in the dugout, where supposedly the two men had to be physically separated. Here's the AL.com video that caught some of the argument during the Bama coach's postgame interview:

Alabama officials only confirming that a uniformed officer was involved in shouting match and it did not get physical.

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) May 6, 2012

• Obviously I have no clue what happened in the dugout between Coach Thompson and the officer, but I saw reports that the officer was taunting Butch after the loss. Um, really? Going to taunt a coach after your team barely avoided getting swept and is 18-30 on the season? Pretty poor choice of taunting, even outside the fact that HE WAS ON THE FREAKING JOB. Again, that's just what I've heard happened, and if so, dude should be fired immediately. We'll keep you updated if we hear officially what took place in the exchange if any updates become available.
• In non-ROLLTAHD news, Brandon Marcello wrote a couple of pieces last week on Luis Pollorena that you should absolutely read if you haven't already. Here's the one on Luis overcoming Leukemia, and here's the one on his friendship with MSU softball player Megan Nesbit.
• Obviously if you're reading this, I survived my fishing trip. We caught quite a good many, but sadly I was unable to bring any in via hand grabbing. I did try though, just none in the pipes. We shall meet again, Lake Washington.
• We're still looking for readers to submit us mail for our new mailbag segment. We've received some so far, but we'd like to get in as much as we can before we try to get to answerin'. It doesn't matter what your question is about: the site, an MSU sport, Britney Spears, politics, whatever. Just send them to us at forwhomthecowbelltolls@gmail.com and we will do our best to get them answered. Look for that post to start going up weekly or maybe twice a month, starting this upcoming Wednesday. Oh, and if you prefer to send us a question via twitter or Facebook, then hey that's cool too! Links to our Twitter and Facebook can be found below, as well as in several other places on the site.
• Missed this last week, but apparently former MSU WR Lance Long has been given another opportunity to play in the NFL, this time with his hometown favorite team, the Detroit Lions.
• State is tied for 2nd in the SEC West right now. Raise your hand if you had that picked at the beginning of the year (/sees you raise hand //calls you a liar)

That's all I have for this morning guys, hope you all have a great Monday. I'll try my best to make the notes not ALL about baseball tomorrow, but honestly at this time in the year that's hard to do.

#HailState

Follow For Whom the Cowbell Tolls on Twitter.

Like For Whom the Cowbell Tolls on Facebook.