MILITARY EMPHASIS
Bulldogs have good day offensively in game one to gain split of twin bill
Members of the United States military parade around Mississippi State’s Dudy Noble Field prior to the national anthem held before Saturday’s baseball doubleheader against Ole Miss. The Bulldogs and Rebels split the twin bill and play the third game today in Starkville.
Frustrations at the plate for 30 games came to a boiling point for the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon when No. 3 Ole Miss came to Starkville.
The Bulldogs have carried the Southeastern Conference’s worst offense for the last several weeks and the Rebels have been pitching at a high level. However, State chased starter Brady Feigl in the third inning of game one when it blew the game open with eight runs.
It all gave way to a day where the Bulldogs broke through offensively for the first time for the better part of this year. They won 13-3 to open the series.
“They hit us right in the face so we got back up, hit them and kept pouring it on,” MSU first baseman Tanner Allen said. “We played hard and everybody got in on the action. It was a really good team win.”
State starting pitcher Konnor Pilkington saw his team in a hole early when Nick Fortes hit a two-run home run to right field, but the Bulldogs responded.
State got a run back in the first thanks to an error on Jake Mangum’s ground ball to lead off the inning and back-to-back wild pitches scored him. The Bulldogs got another run in the second as Justin Foscue doubled, advanced on another wild pitch and eventually scored on Josh Hatcher’s groundout.
Ole Miss starting pitcher Brady Feigl got into a real jam in the third inning and MSU took advantage. State loaded the bases with no one out and scored two runs on an error. The Bulldogs broke the game open on a two-run single from Hatcher, an RBI double from Mangum and Allen’s three-run double with two outs that made it 10-2 suddenly.
“We haven’t had a lot of big innings like that this year,” MSU head coach Gary Henderson said. “You hope that momentum spreads and it was good to be a part of one of those.”
While Pilkington was in his groove, State didn’t stop hitting. In the fifth, the Bulldogs got a single and a double from Marshall Gilbert and Rowdey Jordan to score another run. Allen and Hunter Vansau had two-out RBI to push the score to 13-2 and forced Ole Miss back to the bullpen for a second time.
The Rebels got a run back in the sixth on a one-out double by Thomas Dillard to cut the lead to 13-3.
That was the rest of the production for either team as the Bulldogs took game one of the series by 10 runs.
Of the 14 hits in the game, the Bulldogs got three hits each from Allen and Gilbert. Allen had four RBI in the game and Gilbert had his first three-hit performance of the year. Vansau had two hits, as did Hatcher, who drove in three runs.
On the mound, State got a fantastic opening game from Pilkington after the tough first inning. Pilkington (2-4) won his first SEC game of the season going seven innings giving up five hits, two earned runs and striking out seven. Keegan James pitched the final two innings allowing just a walk and striking out a batter.
“I thought he did a wonderful job of mixing up his pitches and putting people away,” Henderson said of Pilkington. “I’m sure that putting up the big number (runs) helped a little bit.”
Game Two
Ole Miss 6, Mississippi State 1
It was a much different game two for the Bulldogs as they went right back into their old habits at the plate.
MSU (16-16, 3-8 SEC) left 10 men on the bases and never could get a big hit to take control. Ole Miss (27-5, 7-4), on the other hand, pounded out 14 hits and squared the series at a game each.
Ryan Rolison was a big reason for the Bulldogs having lack of success at the plate. The Rebel hurler threw seven innings and gave up just one run while striking out nine. His counterpart Ethan Small lasted just four innings and surrendered eight hits and four runs while striking out seven.
“(Rolison) was throwing two pitches for strikes and running it up there 90-94 (miles per hour),” Allen said. “He mowed us down a little bit and we scratched across one run. Hats off to him. Winning game one was big, but we kind of lost focus in game two.”
Ole Miss hit the board first for the second time in as many games with two runs in the second inning. Small had two outs in the inning before he balked a runner to second and gave up an RBI single to follow. Ole Miss had another RBI single after that to score another.
A couple of doubles by the Bulldogs got the game to 2-1 after three innings, but Ole Miss sent Small packing in the fourth. Ole Miss put together three-straight hits with two outs, including backto-back doubles that pushed the lead out to 4-1.
Twice in the game MSU left the bases loaded which left runs off the board. After doing it in the fourth inning, Ole Miss took control. Two more runs came across the plate for the 6-1 advantage that stood the rest of the way.
State had seven hits in the game led by Mangum and Dustin Skelton, who had two hits each.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs are going into today’s 1 p.m. rubber match with a chance to win the series. It’s the third weekend in a row that has been the case with State losing the previous two series. Jacob Billingsley will start for MSU and face off against James McArthur.
“It’s time for us to win a conference weekend and we’ve got to play well,” Henderson said. “That starts with competitive at-bats, clean defense and a starting pitcher that pounds the bottom of the strike zone. That’s what we need to do (today).”