No. 4 Bulldogs face Louisiana-Lafayette

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The No. 4 Mississippi State baseball team continues its homestand on Wednesday when it takes on the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns at 6 p.m. CT at Dudy Noble Field. The game will air on SEC Network+.

The Bulldogs (9-3, 0-0 SEC) are fresh off a 10-0 win over Grambling State on Tuesday. The MSU pitching staff limited the Tigers to two hits and fanned 13 batters. That performance comes one game after a combined no-hitter against Kent State on Sunday.

Senior Tanner Allen went 1-for-4 with four RBIs, while senior Rowdey Jordan went 1-for-2 with three RBIs and graduate student Scotty Dubrule recorded two RBIs on a 1-for-1 night at the plate. Junior Brad Cumbest was 3-for-3 with three runs scored.

Allen leads MSU’s offense in batting average (.326), hits (15), RBIs (13) and runs scored (15). Sophomore Kamren James is batting .292 with 13 RBIs and four home runs.

The Ragin’ Cajuns (9-4, 0-0 Sun Belt) are off to their best start since the 2014 season when they started the year 11-2 and finished the season with a 58-10 record.

Louisiana-Lafayette won two of the three games against Tulane to start the 2021 season and have won each of its three weekend series.

The offense is led by freshman Carson Roccaforte with a .370 batting average to go with a team-high nine RBIs. Junior Ben Fitzgerald has reached base in 11 straight games and is batting .350 with a team-high five doubles. The Ragin’ Cajuns have stolen 26 bases in 13 games this season, which ranks No. 4 nationally.

Wednesday’s meeting between MSU and Louisiana-Lafayette will be the sixth in program history. Louisiana-Lafayette leads the all-time series, 3-2, but MSU won 3-1 in the last meeting during the first game of the Shriners College Classic in 2018. The two teams also met at the 2014 NCAA Lafayette Regional where the No. 1 Ragin’ Cajuns topped MSU twice to advance to the Super Regional round.

Probable Starters:

MSU: LHP Houston Harding (1-1, 1.74 ERA)

ULL: LHP Austin Perrin (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

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