'I was so fired up: RJ Yeager serves up unforgettable moment in win against Alabama
Mar. 26—STARKVILLE — RJ Yeager doesn't remember rounding the bases. He remembers seeing a curveball coming out of Dylan Ray's hand and sending it the other way, but that's the extent of his memory regarding to most iconic "Yeager bomb" to date.
Hunter Hines does, though. He predicted the pitch and the result in the dugout — Yeager sending it over the fence to give Mississippi State a 7-6 win in the 10th inning.
Chris Lemonis remembers it, too — watching his dugout erupt, The Dude Effect in full effect and a moment Yeager couldn't have imagined at Mercer.
"That's why these kids come here," Lemonis said. "They wanna play in front of that. They wanna play in those environments. RJ Yeager, he'll remember that night for the rest of his life."
By the time Yeager emerged from a mob which started at home plate and stretched to the mound, his shirt was ripped off. His EvoShields and helmet? He'll need to find those before 2 p.m. Saturday.
His blast was the third of a crucial series of home runs from the Bulldogs. It started in the seventh, just when it appeared Alabama was pulling away in the same fashion Georgia did against State a week prior.
That's when Kellum Clark sent a three-run laser to right field at 110 miles per hour off the bat, trimming the deficit to one.
Again, it appeared Alabama was settling in for a win with an insurance run in the ninth to make it 6-4.
That's when Hunter Hines, the freshman phenom already etching his name into State's history books, one-upped the guy just below him in the lineup.
Hines, at 114 miles per hour off the bat, sent a 3-1 fastball just down the line. He tied it up, and around him The Dude erupted. He was sitting on a fastball, which he admits is why he struggles with changeups. But the freshman demonstrated patience rare at his age and swung momentum completely in State's favor.
"I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out," Hines said of what he thought while rounding the bases. "I was just happy we kept the game going. I knew I didn't win it. I just knew there was a good shot we could win it after that."
Yeager said he felt momentum begin to shift with what State was doing defensively as well. It was capped by Kamren James, a junior struggling with consistency at third base, diving for a popped-up bunt in the top of the lone extra frame.
He made the catch just in front of the mound before rapidly getting up and picking off the runner at first for a double play.
Without that, Hines admits, it hard to imagine what could've happened next. Best case for MSU, Alabama has a runner on second with one out. Worst case, Alabama has two on with no outs.
That wasn't the case, though. Not on this Friday night at Dudy Noble Field. Not on a Friday night with just as many fireworks on the field as in the postgame pyrotechnics show.
It was the breakthrough moment a State team struggling to find momentum off a national championship run needed. The Bulldogs got it from a duo of players not familiar with what Mississippi State baseball home games are hyped up to be — though they might need to watch the replays to remember gather their observations.
"It was probably one of the top things I've ever witnessed," Yeager said. "To see everybody hyped up like that — I don't really know what happened rounding the bases. I was so fired up."
STEFAN KRAJISNIK is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at stefan.krajisnik@djournal.com.
