Mississippi State Baseball Wins a Crucial Extra-Inning Battle With Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Justin Foscue’s two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning gave Mississippi State an important 14-12 win over Alabama Friday night in the opening game of a three-game Southeastern Conference series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Trailing 11-5 in the eighth inning, The Dawgs scored seven runs to lead to an extra-inning ballgame.

State improved to 25-21 (10-12 SEC), while Alabama fell to 23-24 (5-17 SEC).

Alabama came out hot, taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a grand slam by Chandler Taylor.

State answered in the top of the second inning with a five-run frame, which was highlighted by a three-run home run by Rowdey Jordan. Elijah MacNamee added an RBI-single and Josh Hatcher had a sacrifice-fly to give MSU a 5-4 lead.

The Crimson Tide then came back to take a 7-5 lead in the fifth inning after Keith Holcombe hit a three-run double to score Kyle Kaufman, Sam Praytor and Chandler Avant.

Alabama added one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning on Praytor’s RBI-single, which scored Joe Breaux. Cobie Vance’s three-run home run in the seventh inning gave Alabama a commanding 11-5 lead.

Trailing big, The Diamond Dawgs exploded for seven runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 12-11 lead.

Jordan started the big inning off with a double. Tanner Allen and Luke Alexander then hit back-to-back singles. Alexander’s hit scored Jordan. Hunter Stovall and Marshall Gilbert followed with a pair of RBI-singles. An Alabama error reloaded the bases and Foscue followed with an RBI-single of his own. A wild pitch scored Gilbert, a ground ball out scored MacNamee and sacrifice fly by Jake Mangum scored Foscue to round out the big inning for the Diamond Dawgs.

Walker McCleney hit an RBI-single in the home half of the eighth to knot things up at 12 runs, which would lead to extra-inning baseball, where Foscue hit his two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning to give State the 14-12 opening series win.

Alabama outhit MSU 16-13. MacNamee had three hits for MSU, while Foscue, Stovall, Allen and Jordan each had two hits apiece. Foscue and Jordan led the Dawgs with three RBIs.

Praytor had four of Alabama’s 16 hits.

Zach Neff (3-2) pitched the final 1.1 innings and allowed just one hit, while earning the win for the Diamond Dawgs.

Konnor Pilkington drew the start and pitched 4.2 innings. He allowed seven runs, all earned, on seven hits. He struck out five batters and walked two. Keegan James, Cole Marsh and JP France followed Pilkington to the mound, before Neff finished the game.

Deacon Medders (0-3) was charged with the loss for the Tide. He pitched the final two innings, allowing two runs on two hits, and striking out three batters.

The Diamond Dawgs and Crimson Tide will retake the field today for another 6 p.m. CT start on SEC Network+.