Bulldogs suffer a loss to winless Tiger team
Tuesday's promotion at Mississippi State's Dudy Noble Field was “Stranger Things Night.”
It was definitely a strange turn of events for the Bulldogs.
Winless Texas Southern Tigers came to Starkville and defeated No. 6 MSU 8-4. It was the first loss for State to a Southwestern Athletic Conference school since Arkansaspine Bluff in 2015.
The Bulldogs had seven hits in the game, but only one came in the last four innings. They left 11 runners on base.
“It was uncharacteristic for our offense,” MSU shortstop Jordan Westburg said. “We came out flat. We had some chances early on to put them away and we didn't do it. They did a fantastic job on the other side when they had momentum, took their chances and ran with them. We need to do a better job competing as an offense.”
It was the continuation
of what seemed to have started for the Bulldogs in a Sunday loss to Oregon State. The struggles reared its ugly head again against Texas Southern.
Not only was it tough for MSU at the plate, but head coach Chris Lemonis saw two errors for his defense and his pitchers allowed four unearned runs with six walks issued as a staff.
“We're just not competing in a lot of different ways,” Lemonis said. “Defensively, pitching wise and most of all offensively. We just have a lot of non-competitive at-bats. It started this past weekend and we're still in that mode. We're just a little frustrated right now.”
The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Rowdey Jordan singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Foscue, while Westburg was hit by a pitch and came home on an RBI fielder's choice to Brandon Pimentel.
After the Tigers gained a 3-2 advantage with three runs in the top of the second in
pecially down the stretch,” Howland said. “He was getting to the basket.”
Southeastern Conference Player of the Year contender Reggie Perry also had a big night for MSU, as has become the norm. He had another double-double – his 15th of the season – as he scored a team-high 21 points and brought down 12 rebounds.
The production of Carter and Perry helped the Bulldogs keep Alabama down in the second half. MSU never trailed over the course of the final 20 minutes of action.
Despite a team-best 29 points out of Kira Lewis, Jr., the Crimson Tide couldn't find a way to get out in front.
Alabama did lead several times in the first half of action. In fact, the Crimson Tide led 3938 with 20 seconds left until the intermission when State's Nick Weatherspoon sank a 3-pointer. The Bulldogs never trailed again.
Alabama's comeback attempt was hampered, in part, by the absence of John Petty, Jr. Petty, who averaged 15.3 points per game entering Tuesday, injured his right arm midway through the first half while fighting for a loose ball. Petty writhed on the floor in pain before being escorted by team personnel to the locker room area. He returned to the bench in the second half, but didn't see game action the rest of the night.
“It was obviously a factor in the game,” Howland said of Petty's injury. “For them to not have him out there was tough for them.”
Petty being off the floor helped State put up one of its best defensive showings of the year to lock down the win. Alabama entered the game as the top scoring offense in the SEC. The Bulldogs held the Crimson Tide more than 10 points below their season average. Alabama also shot just 38.6 percent as a team. That's the third-lowest shooting percentage by an MSU opponent in a conference game this season. The Bulldogs only held
Missouri and Georgia to lower shooting percentages.
“I was really proud of our defense,” Howland said. “That's what we have to do as a team to grind out wins.”
MSU could certainly stand to grind out three more regular season victories to keep bolstering the resume. The Bulldogs have games left at Missouri and at South Carolina before wrapping up the regular season at home against Ole Miss.
Of course the Howland mantra is to take one game at the time and for State, the next one is at Missouri at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
MSU will be taking momentum with it into that game. The Bulldogs, fresh off the Tuesday win, just have to find a way to keep things rolling and keep up their postseason push.
“We had this same feeling last week in the middle of the week when we got a win (before losing at Texas A&M), so we have to get back to practice and just go even harder because the next game is the most important game at this point,” Carter said.