Bulldogs and Aggies split games on Friday

Game 1 - MSU 5, Texas A&M 1

MSU and Texas A&M's Thursday series opener was delayed due to weather, and the maroon duo of teams picked up the action prior to starting game two on Friday.  MSU started with a 4-1 lead, and the Bulldogs would finish off the 5-1 thanks to a Cody Brown home run (we hit a home run!) and the pitching of Jacob Lindgren and Jonathan Holder.

Lindgren did not have his best outing ever, but luckily Holder was on point as always, and he finished out the final 2.2 innings of work to earn the save.  Trevor Fitts, who pitched very well on Thursday before the rain delay, got the win to move to 3-2 on the year.

Game 2 - MSU 3, Texas A&M 6

In the regularly-scheduled game on Friday, MSU was never really able to put anything together offensively, and Ross Mitchell again had a very un-Ross Mitchell-like outing as the Aggies responded strongly with a 6-3 win over MSU in the nightcap.  The loss pushed MSU to 28-16 overall, 11-9 in the SEC, while Texas A&M improved to 26-18 overall, 9-11 in the SEC.

Offensively, MSU was not able too do much against Aggie starter Daniel Mengden, who scattered nine hits and was able to limit MSU to two runs off of those.  State did have a few strong showings like Brett Pirtle and Alex Detz racking up three hits a piece to lead the way for MSU.  Again, though, State wasn't able to piece together runs from those hits, and that opened the door for A&M.

The Aggies struck for four runs in the fifth inning to pull away for good and to chase Ross from the game.  Myles Gentry did a solid job taking over for Slim Hossy, but the damage was already done by then, and State wasn't able to climb back in from there.

The Bulldogs and Aggies will wrap up the three game set at 2:15 today in the series finale that will be televised on FSN South.  MSU needs a win and series win in a big way if they hope to keep the momentum they've been riding since last weekend's sweep of Missouri.  A series loss to a decent but not great Aggie team would be another blow for MSU's resume.

John Cohen said last night that, if Preston Brown wakes up and feels good today, he will get the ball for the finale.  That's wonderful news for State fans as Preston went down with an injury just when he was getting settled into the rotation.  State will also have Ben Bracewell, who pitched really well last week, as well as Brandon Woodruff and conceivably Jacob Lindgren as well, as he threw just a third of an inning yesterday before being pulled.