Bulldogs earn close win over Volunteers
Mississippi State has found itself on the wrong end of a close game time and time again in recent days.
On Friday night, it was the Bulldogs’ turn to pull one out.
Brent Rooker’s go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh inning was the difference as Mississippi State earned a 5-4 win over Tennessee in the opener of a three-game weekend set at Dudy Noble Field.
“It feels great to win and it feels great to win a onerun ball game,” MSU head coach Andy Cannizaro said. “We kept talking about all the things that we needed to do to win these close games. It was the pitching part of it. It was the offensive execution. It was turning double plays and not leaving anything on the field. Our guys did an outstanding job of doing all that. It was a tremendous team victory.”
Coming into Friday against Tennessee (13-6, 0-4), MSU (13-10, 1-3) had lost its last four games. Three of those defeats were by two runs or less. In all, the Bulldogs have lost seven games this season by two or fewer runs.
Rooker’s big hit put those frustrations to rest for at least one night. The junior slugger stepped to the plate in the home half of the seventh inning with runners at first and second, two outs and MSU trailing 4-3. He then smashed the baseball to centerfield, just out of the reach of Tennessee’s Brodie Leftridge. Both Bulldog baserunners came around to push State
ahead for good.
“I was staying on the fastball and it was a ball off the plate, but I was able to get a good enough swing on it to sneak it in,” Rooker said of his big hit. “I was thankful to get a good swing on it and be able to come up big for the team.
Rooker’s clutch knock made a winner out of MSU’s Jacob Barton. Barton threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief after starter Konnor Pilkington was removed.
Pilkington, State’s ace, struggled mightily for one of the only times so far this season. Pilkington did pitch 5 1/3 innings, but gave up eight hits and two walks while striking out seven. He also hit a batter.
“Konnor Pilkington is one of the best Friday night starters, not only in the SEC, but in the entire country, and he got hit a little on a really difficult night to pitch,” Cannizaro said. “The wind was blowing dead out to left field at close to 20 miles per hour. That’s difficult to pitch in, but him getting halfway through the game without his best stuff was a really workman effort for us.”
Barton, Riley Self and Spencer Price found a bit more success than Pilkington. Barton held the fort long enough for the Bulldogs to overcome its two-run deficit, then Self and Price handled the eighth and ninth innings respectively to lock down the win for the Bulldogs. MSU actually led earlier in the game before Tennessee got to Pilkington forcing the Bulldogs to come from behind. Elijah MacNamee put State up 2-0 with a tworun homer in the first inning.
That lead held for MSU until the middle innings. In the third, Tennessee got its first run with an RBI double from Justin Ammons. Vols catcher Benito Santiago tied the game an inning later with an RBI double of his own. One batter later, Dom Thornton put Tennessee up 4-2 with a two-run homer.
That score held until State’s seventh. Hunter Vansau started the rally with one out by getting hit by a pitch. Josh Lovelady followed with an infield single ahead of an RBI single from Tanner Poole that got the Bulldogs to within one run at 4-3.
After Jake Mangum struck out, Rooker came through with his big blow.
“He’s probably at the midway point of the year one of the national players of the year and he comes up with the double to put us ahead,” Cannizaro said of Rooker.
The win gives State momentum headed into today. With rain in the forecast, today’s game has been pushed back to a 6:30 p.m. start time. When MSU takes the field, it will do so feeling good about itself after getting back on the right track Friday night.
“This was a big-time win,” Cannizaro said. “We did so many things really well in terms of a team concept. Pilkington battled and got us halfway through the ballgame, then Jacob Barton came in. we got the lead and we were able to hand things off to Riley Self and Spencer Price. That’s kind of how we envision it. That’s how we’d love to be able to do this thing.”