Mississippi State Baseball Overcomes Two Huge Deficits, Defeats Western Illinois and Texas Tech

Twice today, the Mississippi State baseball found itself down huge. Twice today, the Mississippi State found itself the victor.

You see, the Bulldogs trailed 5-0 to Western Illinois, of all teams, at one point. And the Bulldogs trailed #14th ranked Texas Tech 4-0 early in the second game. Neither of those large deficits were insurmountable for Andy Cannizaro and the young Bulldogs.

In the first game of the day, Western Illinois struck early, taking a 3-0 lead in the top of the 4th inning. The Leathernecks were hell bent on getting a win after being throttled by the Red Raiders of Texas Tech and MSU all weekend, and they seemed to be doing a good job early on.

Western Illinois would eventually have a 5-0 lead in the top of the 6th, but a huge bottom of the 6th for the Bulldogs allowed State to tie the game. MSU would have a 9-5 lead in the 9th inning, primed to get a win, but it wouldn’t be that easy. The Leathernecks brought 4 runs home to tie the game and force extra innings.

State would recover, however, and won in 11. But things looked rough. MSU used 7 pitchers in the game and was about play their 4th game in 3 days. And their opponent being a Texas Tech team that can score against anybody.

Ryan Cyr took the mound to start against the Red Raiders he had a rough start. He forfeited 4 runs in the 1st to Tech, but he was able to turn it around and throw 3 scoreless from there. Riley Self would relieve him, and he’d go on to get the win for Mississippi State.

Self would throw 5 innings, striking out 7 and only giving up 1 run. Self had no issues taking Texas Tech down. And that allowed MSU to mount a comeback.

The Bulldogs scored 4 runs in the 3rd inning to tie the game. They’d add 2 more in the 4th, another in the 5th, and a final run in the 8th. State was able to completely discombobulate Tech’s pitchers on their way to the win.

And though it wouldn’t have surprised anybody had State’s pitchers crumbled, down 4-0 against a power hitting team, they were resilient and bounced back. Instead, it was Texas Tech that truly had issues pitching. On the game, the Red Raiders gave up 8 hits, issued 5 walks, and hit an absurdly high 4 batters.

Mississippi State is now 3-1 and showed incredibly resiliency to get both wins. This is a young team, and they looked it at times today. But as long as they get wins, I’m not going to complain how they get them.