From Staff Reports
Timely hitting and a dominant performance from senior closer Trevor Fitts landed Mississippi State’s baseball team its biggest win of the season on Saturday, and brought the Bulldogs an opportunity to earn their biggest series win of the year.
Fitts, who entered Saturday’s game at No. 2 Texas A&M with the responsibility or protecting a one-run lead, struck out the first four batters he faced and cruised to a six-out save, preserving a 3-2 win for the Bulldogs. With the win, MSU evened the series at a game apiece and ran its overall record to 22-15. The Bulldogs are 6-8 in Southeastern Conference play. Texas A&M opened the series with a 3-1 victory Friday night.
On Saturday, sophomore outfielder Cody Brown connected for a solo home run to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, MSU’s first lead of the series and Brown’s first home run of the season.
MSU also received RBI singles from second baseman John Holland and right fielder Michael Smith to hand Texas A&M starter Kyle Simonds his first loss of the season.
On the hill for the Bulldogs, junior Preston Brown enjoyed his best outing in more than a month, allowing one run on eight hits through seven innings to improve to 5-3 on the season. It was Brown’s second win in conference play.
After reliever Levi Mintz pitched to one batter in the bottom of the eighth and allowed a solo home run to trim MSU’s lead to 3-2, Fitts emerged from the bullpen and closed the deal for the Bulldogs, who are trying to earn consecutive series wins.
Offensively, MSU managed seven hits, two each by Holland and center fielder Jacob Robson.
On Friday night, Texas A&M scored twice in the fourth inning and once in the fifth to take the series lead.
MSU was limited to just one run on five hits, scored by Robson in the sixth inning. Aggies’ starter Grayson Long allowed just three hits and the one run, which was unearned, in seven innings to improve to 7-0 on the season.
MSU starter Lucas Laster, making his second start in SEC play, took the loss, as he yielded two earned runs on seven hits in 7 1/3 innings. The big blow for Texas A&M was a two-run home run by left fielder Logan Taylor against Laster in the bottom of the fourth.
For MSU, Cody Brown and designated hitter Reid Humphreys each delivered two hits.
The two teams will decide the series in today’s finale. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
n Rebels roar back, claim series win at No. 1 Vanderbilt: On the strength of a four-run ninth inning rally that led to a 16-inning win Friday night, Ole Miss took momentum into Saturday’s series finale at No. 1 Vanderbilt and emerged with its biggest series win of the season.
Ole Miss (18-18, 7-8) earned a 6-5 win on Friday night and finished the series with a 5-4 win Saturday afternoon. Vanderbilt’s lone win of the weekend was a 7-0 decision Thursday night.
“Over the years, we have played really well against the No. 1 team, and we have come out on the right side of a lot of those games,” said Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco. “But I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of a team to come on the road against the No. 1 team, after losing a midweek game, and face a team this talented; we just played great all weekend long.”
In Saturday’s win, sophomore shortstop Errol Robinson provided the difference-maker, a two-run, bases-loaded single in the top of the seventh that gave the Rebels the lead for good.
Freshman Will Stokes allowed four runs in six innings to earn his first career win for the Rebels.
Senior Sam Smith posted two scoreless innings of relief, and junior Jacob Waguespack pitched a worry-free ninth to earn his first career save.
For the series, the Ole Miss bullpen did not allow a run in 15 2/3 innings of work.
Nine different Rebels recorded base hits throughout the afternoon as the team tallied 10 of them. Senior Austin Knight went 2-for-3 and added a walk to reach base three times. Holt Perdzock had a RBI double in his only plate appearance,
and Cameron Dishon knocked in a run as well.
The win secured the Rebels’ second series win over a No. 1-ranked team this season. Earlier, Ole Miss took two of three games from Florida, which was ranked No. 1 by Baseball America at the time.
On Friday night, Ole Miss trailed 6-2 entering the ninth inning and looked destined to drop two straight to Vanderbilt. But sophomore Colby Bortles launched a game-tying grand slam in the top of the ninth, and an RBI double by Henri Lartigue in the top of the 16th gave Ole Miss an improbable come-from-behind win.
The grand slam was Bortles’ fourth home run of the season, and came with no outs in the ninth.
Ole Miss got 11 scoreless innings from its bullpen, and Scott Weathersby pitched the final six frames, striking out 10 to earn his first win of the year.
The 16-inning win marked the third-longest game in Rebels’ history.
Ole Miss will step out of conference play on Tuesday by playing host to Tennessee-Martin.
n Alabama splits first two with Georgia: A day after earning a walkoff win in extra innings, Alabama trailed from the start in an 8-1 Saturday loss to Georgia, evening the SEC weekend series at one game each.
The two teams will play the rubber game of the series today at 1 p.m.
On Saturday, Alabama (17-16, 5-9) managed just six hits and Crimson Tide hitters struck out 11 times against Georgia starter Ryan Lawlor. Center fielder Georgia Salem had two of Alabama’s hits and the Crimson Tide’s lone RBI.
On Friday night, Alabama shortstop Mikey White delivered the game-winner, an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to give the Crimson Tide a 7-6 win.
“One thing this team showed is that we’ve got good fight,” said Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard. “These guys will come back and compete really hard, and tonight it paid off in the end. That’s what our team needed tonight — to find a way to win a big game, and they did that. I’m happy for them, and I feel like this is something we can build on the rest of the weekend.”
The two teams each scored twice in the 10th inning, as Georgia took a 6-4 lead before Alabama fought back to tie it in the bottom of the inning.
Freshman Cody Henry led Alabama with a career-high four hits, including a double, triple and three RBIs.
n Golden Eagles set season-high in runs scored: A day after getting blanked to open a road series at Western Kentucky, the Southern Miss offense erupted on Saturday, setting a new season-high in runs scored in a 15-3 Conference USA victory.
The Golden Eagles (19-12-1, 7-6) evened the series at a game apiece, and the finale is set for today at noon.
Southern Miss exploded for six runs in both the second and third innings, taking advantage of three Hilltopper errors over that span, to break open the game.
Tim Lynch and Matt Durst each had two hits to lead the nine-hit Golden Eagle attack.
Senior Michael Sterling hit a grand slam for USM, hit first home run since 2012.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.