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Mississippi State Baseball Series Recap: Vanderbilt

John Cohen and the Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball team went up to Nashville after an atrocious midweek performance and were able to steal the series from the Commodores.

By EthanLee
Kelly Price/HailState.com

Game 1: Mississippi State 2, Vanderbilt 1

This was a long game. This was a very long game. For many fans, this was a very stressful, very long game. The Bulldogs scored once in the first inning and then once more 12 innings later. That's a long scoring drought. However, Vanderbilt's pitching staff wasn't the only group stifling hitters on Friday night. Dakota Hudson and company shut down Vanderbilt's hitters and gave MSU everything it needed to get the win. Read more about it here.

Game 2: Mississippi State 5, Vanderbilt 4

In a game that was much more entertaining to watch for those of us that don't like pitching duels, the Bulldogs and Commodores found more life at the plate on Saturday. Thanks to the return of clutch, two-out hitting that we haven't seen very frequently in the past couple of years, Mississippi State was able to take an early lead but would lose it due to a two-run shot by Bryan Reynolds (not Ryan Reynolds, the star of Deadpool, unfortunately). MSU would then fight back the very next inning thanks, again, to impressive two out hitting. Read more about it here.

Game 3: Vanderbilt 12, Mississippi State 6

This game sucked. It was not fun. It felt like a punch to the gut, or the jaw. It was less than pleasant. But, the Bulldogs, down 8-1 at one point early in the game, did not lie down and roll over and play dead. Mississippi State would go on to get the game within two at one point, but simply couldn't get all the way back on top. Read more about it here.

The series as a whole

As a whole, this weekend was a lot of fun. Vanderbilt is clearly one of the best programs in the nation, and it's incredibly difficult to beat them once anywhere, let alone twice in Nashville. This outcome was also completely unexpected by some, especially after the midweek collapse that we witnessed. I think we're starting to see how good this team can be. They've still got consistency issues, but personally, I'm perfectly happy beating top 10 teams and dropping a midweek game here and there. That being said, we need to stop losing midweek games. If MSU can ever get consistent, this will be a very entertaining season.

Also, FWIW, I never doubted you, MSU baseball.

What was special?

Dakota. Hudson. The man pitched lights out on Friday with arguably the best performance of his career. Hudson struck out 8 in 9.0 innings of work while only surrendering 4 hits to, as I've said before, one of the best teams in the nation. I sincerely hope that every MSU fan who has children decides to start naming their future children Dakota. We can't pass up on the opportunity to possibly start producing more future greats, because we're two for two when it comes to sports stars named Dakota so far. It's a good name. Start naming all of your kids Dakota and be sure to send them to MSU to play sports and stuff.

Other cool stuff? Well the baseball team isn't great at singing but their cover of a Drew Holcomb song after taking the series got noticed by the man himself on twitter. Apparently he and Brent Rooker went to the same high school. Warning: the singing is awful but the guys got to celebrate a huge win in a fun way. Hats off to y'all.

What was not?

Sunday. Sunday was awful. Sunday is the epitome of not special. I'm not sure what exactly changed over night, maybe Vanderbilt's baseball team was embarrassed to have lost to us just like some of their fans were, I don't know. But Sunday just wasn't fun. I'm really glad we came away with the series win, but a sweep would've been even more fun. This is still a young team that isn't used to playing together. They've shown that they have a lot of potential, hopefully they can play up to that potential for all three games of a series against teams like LSU, A&M, and Ole Miss.

Who's next?

Well, tonight, MSU gets to play Mississippi Valley State. They are simply not good. They've given up 198 runs in 17 games. They've scored 79 runs in that same span. If my math is correct (according to Vanderbilt fans and reporters it is occasionally off a little bit) MVSU is being outscored by 7 runs per game. They're not good. At all.

After that, MSU will return to SEC play by hosting the Georgia Bulldogs starting Thursday. UGA is 14-7 on the season and 3-0 away from home, but they opened SEC play by losing the series to Kentucky. UGA gave up 27 runs over the course of the three game series and scored 15 runs on the weekend.

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