Texas' Antico leads speedy outfield against Mississippi State in CWS opener
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Jun. 19—Texas coach David Pierce is aware of Mississippi State's speed and hitting abilities, but he feels like the speed of his outfield can help put the Longhorns at an advantage tonight.
No. 7 national seed MSU and No. 2 Texas square off in the College World Series at 6 p.m. It's in spacious TD Ameritrade Park, which is not normally a hitter's ballpark.
TD Ameritrade's dimensions are 335 down the lines, 375 to the alleys and 408 to center field. Hitters are usually hitting the ball into the wind, so not many fly balls leave the park.
The stadium favors small-ball hitting clubs, such as Mississippi State, but Pierce and his speedy outfield feel they have the advantage going into the opening game.
"The one thing is that they run," Pierce said about Mississippi State. "For an SEC team, I think they run better than most SEC teams. ... Anytime you have speed in the outfield like we do, it's advantageous. There's no part of our defense that we feel like we try to protect."
The Bulldogs have home run power, but have mostly used small-ball to score this year.
Mississippi State hits a lot of line drives and ground balls around the field, and uses speed to turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples.
MSU has hit 112 doubles, 12 triples, and stolen 68 bases this year.
But as much as Mississippi State has flexed its speed on offense, Texas has done the same on defense.
Texas centerfielder Mike Antico is one of the fastest players in college baseball, and Eric Kennedy and Douglas Hodo complement him well in the outfield.
Antico has 15 doubles and two triples, but the base paths is where he shows off his speed. He has stolen 39 bases this year in 43 attempts.
That speed translates to the outfield, where he regularly cuts off routine doubles to hold runners to singles and robs players of hits with catches most players don't make.
"Mike can really run," Pierce said. "When you see him out there, sometimes he looks like he's gliding, but his rhythm and his running is really good."
Kennedy and Hodo, however, are also great outfielders with speed. Kennedy has 17 stolen bases this year while Hodo has five, and all three have been stellar in the field.
Kennedy, who plays left field, has not made an error this year in 90 opportunities, while Hodo has only made one error in 96 opportunities in right field.
The speedy Antico has the most errors in the outfield with three in 126 chances, but has thrown out three baserunners and also turned a double play.
And with TD Ameritrade Park playing the way it does, Pierce expects to see all three players flying around making plays to help secure a Texas win on Sunday night.
"All three of them play like center fielders," Pierce said. "So I'm glad that they get good jumps and they understand angles. But it's a big park. ... It's their job to understand their positioning without moving too far from where they normally stand. And then it's their job to also go get the ball. We expect them to catch everything, and I don't expect anything different this weekend."
