Senior was only Bulldog drafted
Auburn sweeps doubleheader from MSU
For weeks now, Mississippi State has dealt successfully with a shorthanded pitching staff battling a plethora of injuries.
It finally all seemed to catch up to the Bulldogs, at least for a day on Saturday.
No. 5 Auburn swept a doubleheader from No. 8 MSU at Dudy Noble Field as the Bulldogs lost just their second Southeastern Conference series of the season. Auburn (3214, 14-7) pounded MSU 17-8 in the day's first game before State (30-16, 14-7) dropped the nightcap 5-3.
“I just didn't think we necessarily played
great team baseball,” Mississippi State head coach Andy Cannizaro said. “We'd been clicking on all cylinders here the last couple weeks swinging it well, pitching it well and playing quality defense. There were glimpses of it (Saturday), but there were also big gaps.”
The losses dropped MSU into a first place tie with Auburn at the top of the Southeastern Conference standings with just three weekends left. Kentucky could make it a three-way tie for first if the Wildcats win today.
Auburn claimed the series courtesy of its win in the day's final game. The Tigers' five-run fourth inning proved to be the difference.
That rally was started off of MSU starting pitcher Jacob Billingsley, who took the loss after just three-plus innings of work. Billingsley's outing was unfortunately a bit of deja vu for Cannizaro after starter Cole Gordon had lasted just three innings in the day's first game.
“If you play 18 innings in a day, you need to get more than six innings out of your starting pitching,” Cannizaro said. “Those guys have done an outstanding job the last couple of weeks, but they just didn't get it done (Saturday). By no means though have we lost any confidence in those guys. They'll be right back out on the mound next weekend.”
Try as they might, the Bulldogs couldn't overcome their five-run hole.
Harrison Bragg and Elijah MacNamee each had RBI singles for MSU and Brent Rooker totaled three hits, including a solo
home run, but it wasn't enough.
It was a sour ending for the Bulldogs after the weekend started with a win on Friday. However, Rooker insists State will bounce back and keep battling the way they have all year.
“We try to be positive and take something good moving forward from every game,” Rooker said. “(Saturday) we didn't play our best, but we still showed we can compete with a really, really elite team even when we're not at our best.”
First game Auburn 17, MSU 8
Auburn took advantage of a woeful performance from MSU's pitching staff to, at the time, even the weekend series.
Five Mississippi State pitchers combined to walk eight men, hit five batters and throw six total wild pitches. Gordon suffered the loss for the Bulldogs after starting and allowing five runs in his three innings of work.
Cole Lipscomb earned the win for the Tigers.
Auburn used a 14-hit attack to take further advantage of the wildness of MSU's pitchers. Nine of Auburn's 17 runs were scored by batters that were either walked or hit by a pitch.
Auburn's Jonah Todd and Dylan Ingram, who began his college baseball career at Mississippi State, had four RBI each.
Cody Brown had four RBI for MSU in defeat. Brown, Rooker and Bragg all hit home runs for the Bulldogs.