Make It Three Straight Supers For Mississippi State Baseball

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After dropping the opening game of the Tallahassee Region to Oklahoma, the Mississippi State baseball team rallied for four straight wins and a spot in the Super Regionals with a 8-1 win over Oklahoma (38-25) in the Tallahassee Regional Championship Monday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium.

MSU is now the first program in NCAA history to lose the first game of a Regional and then come back to win the whole thing in back-to-back years. The Dawgs Won four straight elimination games in Hattiesburg last year.

MSU (35-26) will face Vanderbilt (34-25) in the a best-of-three super regional series with the winner advancing to Omaha

The Sooners managed to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning without a hit, but it was all State the rest of the game.

The Diamond Dawgs scored two runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good. After Rowdey Jordan flew out, Tanner Allen drew a walk. A few batters later Elijah MacNamee singled and then Justin Foscue hit a two-run double to take the 2-1 lead.

State increased the lead when Jordan hit an RBI-single in the fifth inning to score Dustin Skelton.

Jordan reached after being hit by a pitch and later scored a run on a passed ball in the eighth inning to make it a 4-1 Dawg lead.

In the ninth inning, Luke Alexander hit a one-out single, which was followed by a double from Skelton. Jordan Westburg then followed with a two-run single to make it 6-1. Mangum ended the scoring by hitting a two-run home run to give the Diamond Dawgs a huge 8-1 championship win.

MSU had 11 hits in the game, while holding Oklahoma to just four hits. Jordan, Foscue and Skelton each had multiple-hit performances.

State got a great performance from JP France in his second start of the season. France (5-5) pitched seven innings, allowing one earned run on just two hits. He struck out five batters and walked two.

Riley Self pitched two shutout innings for his first save on the year.

Levi Prater (3-4) was charged with the Oklahoma loss.

State will now take on Vanderbilt in a best-of-three Super Regional series. The location of the series will be determined by the NCAA according to a specific set of criteria, while the game times and dates will be announced soon.

Six Diamond Dawgs wee named to the Tallahassee Regional All-Tournament Team.

C - Dustin Skelton 1B - Tanner Allen OF - Elijah MacNamee OF - Jake Mangum OF - Rowdey Jordan P - JP France Most Outstanding Player: Elijah MacNamee