Mississippi State drops Game 2 of Doubleheader

In an attempt to redeem their lost to the Florida Atlantic Owls (3-0) last night, the Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-2) lost their second game of the weekend to FAU in a shutout, 4-0. The Bulldogs were outhit 13-4 in the game. Austin Sexton, the starting pitcher for MSU, took the loss after 4.2 innings of work. Sexton gave up 4 earned runs and walked 2 batters, but struck out 6 in his time on the mound. Marc Stewart got the win and start for the Owls and pitched 6 innings while only surrendering 2 hits.

The start to this game appeared to be very promising and almost as if the Bulldogs and Owls would be in for a pitchers dual, but the Owls found their offensive stride in the top of the 3rd inning and scored first off of an RBI single. They were held to 1 run until the 5th inning, where FAU would then add on 3 more runs, courtesy of an RBI double, an RBI single, and a bases loaded walk.

The Bulldogs simply could not get the offensive momentum that they had in the first game of today's doubleheader to carry over to this game. MSU had 13 fewer hits in this game than the earlier matchup and, well, 17 fewer runs. MSU did make an attempt at a rally in the 8th inning by getting two runners on base with one out, but they were quickly shut down.

Vance Tatum entered the game in relief of Austin Sexton and threw 4.1 scoreless innings while striking out 6 batters. Together, MSU's pitchers struck out 12 of the 40 batters they faced while throwing a combined 114 strikes out of 171 total pitches for an overall impressive performance, despite the 4 earned runs.

Mississippi State will try to end the weekend on a positive note as they face South Dakota State tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.