No. 3 Mississippi State baseball blanks No. 13 LSU 3-0

BATON ROUGE, La. — After taking the first game against No. 13 LSU on Friday, the No. 3 Mississippi State baseball team clinched a series win over the Tigers with a 3-0 win Saturday night at Alex Box Stadium.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 16-3 (2-0 SEC), while the Tigers fall to 15-5 (0-2 SEC).

MSU starting pitcher Will Bednar (1-0) earned the win after tossing five scoreless innings, surrendering three hits and one walk. He fanned seven batters.

Junior right-hander Preston Johnson struck out one batter and walked two batters in two innings of relief pitching before right-handed sophomore Landon Sims struck out two in two scoreless innings to earn his second save on the year.

Junior righty Landon Marceaux (2-1) was charged with the loss for LSU after allowing one unearned run in seven innings. He struck out three batters and walked three.

Offensively, the Bulldogs were outhit 5-4. Senior Rowdey Jordan recorded one hit and one RBI, while senior Tanner Allen, sophomore Kamren James and sophomore Logan Tanner each collected a hit.

After four scoreless innings, the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth. Tanner drew a walk and moved up to second on a groundout. A fielding error put runners on the corners before freshman Lane Forsythe brought Tanner home with a sacrifice fly.

In the top of the eighth, senior Brayland Skinner drew a walk before advancing to second on an infield out and to third on a wild pitch. Jordan’s RBI single up the middle made it a 2-0 ballgame.

Junior Luke Hancock drew a one-out walk in the ninth. Tanner followed with a double before Hancock scored on senior Josh Hatcher’s RBI groundout to end the game’s scoring at 3-0.

The Bulldogs will look for the series sweep on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT. The game will air on SEC Network+.