gotta have it

Pitching is the thing in baseball. Starting pitching. You cannot win without it. There were four excellent outings from Mississippi college hurlers on Friday, though only three of them were rewarded with a W. Raise a glass to Ole Miss’ Bobby Wahl, Mississippi State’s Chris Stratton, Jackson State’s Desmond Russell and Mississippi College’s Ian Underwood. Wahl went six innings in the Rebels’ SEC opener and allowed one unearned run in the 2-1 victory against Auburn to improve to 4-0. Stratton made Bulldogs coach John Cohen look like a genius when he chose the junior right-hander from Tupelo for his first start of the season. Stratton allowed just one run over 8 2/3 innings with 17 strikeouts at LSU, which rallied in the 10th for a 3-2 win. Stratton had worked 21 innings in four relief appearances, notching four wins, before Friday’s outing. JSU’s Russell, a sophomore from the Bahamas, threw nine innings to beat Alcorn State in the opener of a key SWAC series at Braddy Field. Russell, now 4-1, allowed six hits and fanned seven in the 7-3 win that moved the Tigers to 6-1 in the league. MC won an American Southwest Conference road game, beating LeTourneau 5-1, as Ian Underwood tossed a complete game five-hitter. Underwood, a senior from Pascagoula, is 3-2 for the 9-10 Choctaws.