No. 3 Mississippi State baseball extends winning streak to 7 with 10-2 win over Samford

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The No. 3 Mississippi State baseball team scored six runs in the sixth inning and went on to win 10-2 over Samford Tuesday night at Dudy Noble Field.

MSU (14-3, 0-0 SEC) won its seventh consecutive game and 11 of its last 12. Junior Luke Hancock led the squad with two hits, three RBIs and two runs.

Senior southpaw Houston Harding pitched 3 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings and allowed four hits with two strikeouts. Junior right-hander Brandon Smith (3-0) earned the win after tossing 1 ²⁄₃ perfect innings of relief pitching with one strikeout.

Junior righty Parker Stinnett then struck out three batters and surrendered one walk in the sixth inning. Sophomore righty Xavier Lovett got two quick outs in the seventh before surrendering a double and being replaced by freshman left-hander Dylan Carmouche. Carmouche gave up a single to allow Samford’s first run before getting the final out of the inning.

Right-handed sophomore pitcher KC Hunt then allowed one run on one hit with one strikeout and one walk in the eighth inning. Sophomore righty Stone Simmons struck out two in the final inning.

Freshman southpaw Blake Bortak (0-1) was charged with the Samford loss after allowing one run on one hit with three walks and three strikeouts.

After two scoreless innings, senior Josh Hatcher drew a walk to begin the bottom of the third. He then stole second before scoring on senior Rowdey Jordan’s double to make it 1-0.

Sophomore Kamren James drew a walk to begin the bottom of the fourth. He then stole second before Hancock homered to right field to make it 3-0. After a flyout, Hatcher followed with a home run to center field to add one run to the MSU lead.

Hancock then homered again to start the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore Logan Tanner then singled to left-center and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Senior Brayland Skinner’s single then put runners on the corners with one out. Freshman Lane Forsythe brought Tanner home with an RBI single up the middle. Graduate student Scotty Dubrule singled to score Skinner to make it a 7-0 ballgame. Forsythe then scored on a fielder’s choice before James singled to score Dubrule. A bases-loaded walk scored the 10th run of the game for MSU.

Samford scored a run in the top of the seventh when junior Towns King doubled and scored on freshman Colton Ledbetter’s RBI single to left field. One more run came across to score in the top of the eighth when senior Taylor Garris singled, advanced to second on a groundout and found his way home after a pair of wild pitches to end the game’s scoring at 10-2.

The Bulldogs return to action Friday when they travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the first game of a three-game series against No. 13 LSU.