No. 2 Mississippi State baseball welcomes North Alabama for midweek tilt

STARKVILLE, Miss. — After opening Southeastern Conference play with a series victory at LSU over the weekend, the No. 2 Mississippi State baseball team welcomes North Alabama to Dudy Noble Field on Wednesday for a 5 p.m. CT first pitch. The game can be watched on SEC Network+.

MSU (16-4, 2-1 SEC) won the first two games against then-No. 13 LSU before dropping the series finale. Sophomore Kamren James recorded five hits in the series and now leads the Bulldogs with a .307 batting average. He has also accounted for a team-high 19 RBIs.

Senior Tanner Allen is batting .303 with 18 RBIs and 22 runs scored, while junior Luke Hancock is batting .262 with 18 RBIs and five home runs. He is reaching base at a .439 rate, which leads the team.

The Bulldog pitching staff owns a .176 batting average against and is averaging 13.0 strikeouts per nine innings, which is good for second in the nation. Freshman righty Mikey Tepper will make his first career start on the mound. He has appeared in two games and has allowed just one unearned run in three innings pitched. He has struck out four batters and walked one.

North Alabama (1-16, 0-6 ASUN) is on a 10-game losing streak and was swept by Bellarmine over the weekend.

The Lions are in their third season as a Division I program after spending most of their time at the Division II level. Junior Devne Daniel leads the team with a .305 batting average to go with four RBIs and six runs. Junior Reid Homan is batting ,170 with a team-high five RBIs,

Wednesday’s meeting will be ninth for the Bulldogs and Lions and first as Division I opponents. MSU owns a 6-2 record against North Alabama.

Probable Starters:

MSU: RHP Mikey Tepper (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

UNA: RHP Will Haberstock (0-2, 4.11 ERA)

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