BULLDOG BITS
Baseball
FRISCO, Texas – The Mississippi State Bulldogs bounced back Sunday afternoon to win the third game of the Frisco Baseball Classic, defeating the California Golden Bears 8-4.
Coming out of the bullpen in the fifth inning, Nate Dohm pitched five scoreless innings helping the Dawgs close out the Frisco Classic with a win.
Dohm earned his second victory of the year after entering a tied game in the fifth inning. He finished the game for the Bulldogs, working five complete innings. Dohm held Cal scoreless from the moment he entered the game, collecting six strikeouts and allowing only one hit to the Golden Bears.
Amani Larry and Bryce Chance both had three hit days for the Diamond Dawgs offense. Larry went 3-for-4, with a double and solo home run. Chance finished 3-for-5 at the plate, highlighted by a double of his own. Luke Hancock and Kellum Clark both had tworbi days for the State offense. Hancock finished 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly and RBI double. Clark blasted a two-run homer that went 462' to center field.
The Diamond Dawgs, who improved to 7-5, return to Dudy Noble Field this week with a Tuesday matchup against Valparaiso. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and will be broadcasted on SECN+.
Softball
It took eight innings, but Mississippi State capped The Snowman with a 5-3 win over Murray State in walk-off fashion on Sunday afternoon.
Chloe Malau'ulu's two-run homer to left-center field broke the tie and sent the Bulldogs home happy.
MSU (16-5) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs to take the lead. Murray State (12-7) responded with a run on a pair of doubles in the top of the seventh to tie the game 3-3. Brylie St. Clair drew a one-out walk in the eighth before Malau'ulu battled to a full count and sent the final pitch over the wall.
"We talk about a lot learning from every weekend, and in reality learning how to win these close games, back-andforth games where maybe you have some momentum and it's taken like it was in the seventh," MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "We talked about that a couple of weeks ago in Clearwater, and we are going to learn how to win these onerun games. It was really good to see, even in the close innings last night and today, being able to come up big and not letting the moment get too big for us and just having quality team at bats."
Josey Marron earned the win in relief and improved to 7-0 for the year. She struck out four batters in three innings of work.
In the fifth, State first scored on a pinch-hit, RBI double from Nadia Barbary. The throw back from the outfield on that play was wild and allowed a second run to come home while Barbary took third. Jackie Mckenna then hit a sacrifice fly to take the lead.
Kiersten Landers had a double in the Bulldogs' threerun fifth. Macy Graf also picked up a hit on a bunt single in the inning.
Men’s Golf
PHOENIX, Ariz. – The No. 22 Mississippi State men's golf team and Ruan Pretorius
claimed team and individual championships at the Desert Mountain Invitational on Sunday. The Bulldogs secured their second win of the season and Pretorius notched his first win with the Bulldogs.
"I am obviously very proud of our team for the resilience and determination they showed today," MSU head coach Dusty Smith said. "It certainly wasn't a perfect round, but the guys did a great job of accepting their shots and moving on from them. I can't say enough about Ruan and how he played this week. It was great watching him win the individual title."
Pretorius secured the individual championship three strokes ahead of Arkansas-little Rock's Matteo Cristoni. He shot a career-low 208 and finished at a career-low 8-under. He registered 16 total birdies for the tournament and went bogey-free on the front nine in the second round and the back nine in the third round.
Austin Vukovits made a 13spot jump in the final round to finish in a five-way tie for seventh. He carded 11 total birdies and an eagle with scores of 70 and 72 in the first and third rounds, along with a bogey-free back nine in the final round.
Garrett Endicott and Ford Clegg both finished play with top-20 finishes. Endicott tied for 12th with Santa Clara's Alex
Conley and Little Rock's Archie Smith. He shot 72 and 71 in the first two rounds, carding nine birdies total and an eagle. Clegg made a 13-spot jump to end the tournament in a four-way tie for 19th with a tournament-low 72 in the final round. He made six birdies in the round and 12 total for the tournament.
William Wann, playing as an individual, carded six birdies in the tournament and tied for 41st. Hunter Logan tied for 70th.
MSU will return to play at the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Georgia, on March 17-19.
Women’s Golf
GAINESVILLE, Fla. –
The Golf Dawgs faced an interesting situation walking onto the course on Sunday. The two-day Gators Invitational had been shortened to 36-holes due to heavy rain on Saturday. Led by three top-20 efforts on the scorecard, State tied for second, carding 7-over (567).
The Bulldogs were locked in a fierce battle down the stretch as the Mark Bostick Golf Course set the stage for the 51st annual Gators Invitational. Heading into the final three holes, State held a one-stroke advantage over No. 25 Central Florida who were both vying for second place. The Bulldog's two top-10 finishes from the senior/ sophomore duo of Hannah Levi
and Julia Lopez Ramirez allowed MSU to stay in second through the finish line and tie with Central Florida.
STARKVILLE | JR | BASEBALL