No. 4 Mississippi State baseball opens series against Eastern Michigan with 14-0 win

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The No. 4 Mississippi State baseball team extended its shutout streak to four games with a 14-0 win over Eastern Michigan Friday night in the first game of a three-game series at Dudy Noble Field.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 11-3 (0-0 SEC), while the Eagles fall to 4-3 (0-0 MAC). MSU’s last four-game shutout streak came in 1909.

Junior southpaw Christian MacLeod (1-1) earned the win for the Bulldogs after striking out 11 batters in five innings of work. He surrendered one hit and one walk.

Junior righty Brandon Smith then tossed a perfect sixth inning with two strikeouts. Right-handed graduate student Riley Self pitched a two-hit, two-strikeout seventh before junior righty Parker Stinnett and graduate student righty Spencer Price pitched perfect eighth and ninth innings. Stinnett fanned all three batters he faced.

Right-handed graduate student Davis Feldman (2-1) was charged with the Eastern Michigan loss after allowing seven runs (five earned) on nine hits with two strikeouts and one walk.

The Bulldogs compiled 14 hits and scored one run in the bottom of the second inning, three in the third and fifth innings, one in the sixth and six in the eighth.

Freshman Lane Forsythe was 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and one RBI. Sophomore Kamren James was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while senior Tanner Allen added two hits, two RBIs and two runs.

James led off the bottom of the second with a ground-rule double down the left-field line, moved to third on a flyout and scored on sophomore Logan Tanner’s RBI single to give MSU a 1-0 lead.

Forsythe and graduate student Scotty Dubrule hit back-to-back singles to start the third inning. Dubrule stole second. Senior Rowdey Jordan then reached on an error when the second baseman failed to field his line drive, but Dubrule was caught in a run down for the first out of the inning. Allen then doubled down the right-field line to score Forsythe. James’ groundout scored Jordan before junior Luke Hancock’s double scored Allen to increase the MSU lead to 4-0.

Jordan doubled to begin the fifth inning and scored on Allen’s RBI single. Hancock walked to put runners on first and second before they pulled off a double steal. Tanner’s groundout scored Allen and senior Josh Hatcher’s double up the middle scored Hancock to make it a 7-0 ballgame.

In the bottom of the sixth, Forsythe doubled to center field and found his way to third after back-to-back walks by Eastern Michigan right-handed graduate student pitcher John Holt. James’ sacrifice fly made it 8-0.

The bottom of the eighth inning began with senior Brayland Skinner drawing a walk and scoring on sophomore Kyte McDonald’s double. James then singled to center field to score McDonald to make it 10-0. James advanced to second on a wild pitch before junior Kace Garner walked and James advanced to third. Tanner followed with another walk to load the bases. Three RBI walks in a row made it 13-0 before senior Tanner Leggett’s groundout scored the 14th and final run of the game.

The squads return to the diamond Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The game will air on SEC Network+.