Mississippi State Baseball Rallies To Down No. 1 Florida

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A four-run eighth inning sealed the deal for the Mississippi State baseball team to come from behind and capture a huge win over No. 1 Florida in the opening game of a three-game Southeastern Conference series at Dudy Noble Field.

MSU trailed 3-0 going into seventh inning. The Diamond dawg comeback began when Elijah MacNamee hit a two-run home run. In the eighth inning, Jake Mangum hit a two-run triple to complete the comeback and give MSU a 4-3 lead.

MSU improved to 29-24 (13-15 SEC), while Florida fell to 41-13 (20-8 SEC). The win also gives the Dawgs a berth in the SEC Tournament.

The Gators jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning after Blake Reese doubled and scored after Deacon Liput singled to score him. Liput then scored on a sac-fly.

Austin Langworthy hit a home run in the sixth inning to push the Gator lead to 3-0.

Hunter Stovall began the Diamond Dawg comeback in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out single. MacNamee then followed with his two-run homer to make it 3-2.

After MSU took a 4-3 lead in the eighth, the Dawgs added two more insurance runs in the frame from a two-run home run from Hunter Stovall to make it make it a 6-3 game-ending score.

State out-hit Florida 7-5. Mangum, Allen and MacNamee each had two hits apiece.

Konnor Pilkington got the strat on the mound and pitched 6.1 innings. He allowed three earned runs on five hits. He struck out seven batters and walked four.

Riley Self (3-0) faced seven batters in a perfect 2.2 innings of work.

Michael Byrne (2-1) pitched the final inning for Florida was and was charged with the loss.

MSU and Florida will return to action today at Dudy Noble for a 6 p.m. CT start on ESPNU.