Mississippi State Baseball Falls In Series Finale Nail-biter

COLUMBIA, Mo. – After taking game two 3-1 in 15 innings Saturday, the Diamond Dawgs ran out of late-inning magic, as they fell 5-4 in 11 innings of baseball in the series finale against the Missouri Tigers at Taylor Stadium.

MSU fell to 13-12 (1-5 SEC), while Missouri improved to 18-6 (3-3 SEC).

The Tigers got on the board first, as a pair of runs came across on no base hits. Brett Bond drew a bases-loaded walk, and Brian Sharp hit a fielder’s choice RBI to make it a 2-0 ballgame.

The score would remain the same until the sixth inning. Luke Alexer got the top of the sixth inning going with a double, and later scored on an RBI-single by Hunter Stovall cutting the deficit in half at one.

In the seventh inning, the Diamond Dawgs took a 4-2 lead. Dustin Skelton hit a single, and Rowdey Jordan followed with a single of his own. Jake Mangum then hit a two-run double. Luke Alexander’s RBI-single scored State’s final run of the frame and gave MSU the 4-2 lead.

A pair of MSU errors in the ninth inning helped Missouri tie the game and sent it to extra innings.

A pair of singles by Missouri in the 11th inning led to a sacrifice fly by Mark Vierling, and gave the Tigers a 5-4 series-clinching win.

MSU finished with 16 hits, and Alexander, Stovall, Mangum, Josh Hatcher, Elijah MacNamee and Skelton each had two hits apiece. Missouri had nine hits.

MSU starting pitcher Jacob Billingsley hit the first batter and then walked three in a row. Cole Gordon came in from there. Gordon pitched six solid innings, allowing no runs on two hits. He struck out four batters.

JP France (1-1) was charged with the loss. He pitched 2.1 innings and allowed one run on two hits.

Andy Toelkin (3-2) earned the win for Missouri.

State will return home to Starkville before continuing its seven-game road trip on Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. CT start at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La.