Mississippi State Baseball Escapes With an Extra-inning Win Over Troy

HOOVER, Ala. – Elijah MacNamee hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the 10th inning and later scored after a bunt by Marshall Gilbert was thrown away at third base and allowed the Diamond Dawgs to walk away with a 9-8 extra-inning win over Troy Wednesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

The win wraps up non-conference games and improves MSU’s record to 27-22 (11-13 SEC) and Troy dropped to 32-17.

The Diamond Dawgs took a 2-0 lead after the first inning. Jake Mangum reached first after being hit by a pitch. Rowdey Jordan followed by drawing a walk. Mangum scored on a wild pitch and Jordan scored after Hunter Stovall hit a single.

The Trojans cut the lead in half in the top of the second inning after Chase Smartt homered to left center, but The Dawgs got that run back in the third inning when Mangum doubled and Tanner Allen’s single scored him to give MSU a 3-1 lead.

Troy took a 4-3 lead with three runs in the fifth inning. Joey Denison doubled to score Drew Frederic and Matt Sanders.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Mangum singled and scored the next play when Jordan doubled to left center to tie things up 4-4.

State then took a 7-4 lead an inning later when Hunter Vansau and Mangum both hit RBI-singles. Vansau would later scored when Mangum stole second base.

The Dawgs held the lead into the ninth inning, but the Trojans came back to score four runs in the final inning to take an 8-7 lead on a sac-fly followed by three RBI-singles.

After Mangum grounded out to start the home half of the ninth, Jordan and Allen followed with a pair of singles. Luke Alexander then drew a walk and Stovall followed with a game-tying sac-fly to score Jordan.

Riley Self pitched a perfect 10th inning for MSU, setting up MacNamee’s lead-off double and a throwing error scoring MacNamee to give the Diamond Dawgs another comeback win.

MSU finished the game with 13 hits and zero errors. Troy had 12 hits. Mangum, Jordan and MacNamee each had three hits, while Allen had two hits to lead the MSU attack.

Jacob Billingsley got the start on the mound and pitched two innings for the MSU, allowing one earned run on three hits.

Denver McQuary then came in and pitched two innings and allowing one hit. Keegan James, Cole Gordon and Blake Smith then combined to pitch the next four innings.

Zach Neff then came in relief and got one out in the ninth inning. Self (2-0) then got the final two outs in the ninth inning and retired the side in order in the 10th inning for the win.

State’s seven-game road trip will come to a close this weekend with a three-game Southeastern Conference series at No. 17 Kentucky. The series will begin Friday in Lexington with a 6:30 p.m. CT first pitch on ESPNU.