Mississippi State Clinches Series over Arkansas in 5-1 Win

Coming off of a 7-0 win in game one, Mississippi State had to continue their winning ways to have any shot at the SEC title. They did just that on Friday, with a 5-1 victory.

Austin Sexton started on the bump for Mississippi State, and he had a fantastic outing. He got off to a rough start, giving up a run in the 2nd inning to put State behind early, but he was in control for the rest of the ballgame. In 7 innings, Sexton gave up four hits, one run, and struck out seven. The performance improves Sexton's record to 7-2 and continues the solid pitching performances State has had over the last couple of weekends.

Reid Humphreys entered the game in the 8th for State and earned his seventh save of the year, giving up one hit, no runs, and striking out three in 2 innings of work.

The bats didn't perform as well as they have in recent games, but they were able to get the job done. State plated five runs from eight hits and stranded seven. Although not having great days at the plate this weekend, State has been able to score pretty well, primarily due to errors. Only two of State's five runs were earned in game two, and only three of State's seven runs were earned in game one. State has been able to capitalize on Arkansas' mistakes this weekend, which has been a huge reason why we've clinched this series.

Mississippi State improves to 39-14-1, 20-9 on the year and, with Florida's loss to LSU, State sits tied for first atop the SEC standings with Texas A&M going into the final day of the regular season. We can only hope that Ole Miss can pull off a victory in College Station on Saturday, so State can have a shot at the outright title.

In addition, this win gave head coach John Cohen his 600th career victory.

The Bulldogs will be playing for the SEC Championship against Arkansas on Saturday at 5:00 PM on the SEC Network.