No. 13 Mississippi State turned one inning into a win Thursday night.
The Bulldogs erupted for 13 runs on 12 hits in the third inning and held off No. 10 Texas A&M for an 18-11 victory at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Tex.
Down 2-0 after a first-inning Texas A&M home run, the Bulldogs began hitting and didn’t stop.
Vytas Valincius started the third with a single, Kevin Milewski followed with another base hit and Ryder Woodson reached on a sacrifice bunt and throwing error to load the bases. Gehrig Frei tied the game with a two-run single, Ace Reese put the Diamond Dawgs in front with an RBI single and Noah Sullivan added another run-scoring hit.
Then Jacob Parker delivered the inning’s biggest swing, blasting a three-run homer to right field to push MSU ahead 7-2. The Bulldogs kept pouring it on from there, getting an RBI single from Vytas Valincius, a two-run homer from Milewski, another RBI single from Sullivan and a two-run double from Parker before the inning finally ended with State leading 13-2.
Parker finished 2-for-5 with a home run, double and five RBIs to lead Mississippi State’s offense. Frei went 3-for-6 with two RBIs, Vytas Valincius was 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs, while Reese, Sullivan and Milewski each drove in two runs.
The Bulldogs added to the lead in the fourth on Vytas Valincius’ solo home run, then pushed three more across in the fifth. Reese opened that inning with his 19th homer of the season, and MSU later scored twice more on an error and a wild pitch to build a 17-4 advantage.
Texas A&M did not go quietly. Jake Duer hit a three-run homer in the fifth, Caden Sorrell scored on a groundout in the seventh and the Aggies added three more in the eighth on Grahovac’s ground-rule double and Sorrell’s two-run double.
But State’s bullpen kept the Aggies from turning the late push into a full comeback. Tyler Pitzer struck out six over 2 2/3 innings, Maddox Webb bridged the eighth and Ben Davis worked the ninth, allowing one hit while striking out one to close it out.
Mississippi State added a final run in the ninth when Chone James lifted a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Sullivan.
Grahovac, Hacopian and Duer all homered for Texas A&M, while Duer drove in three runs. Sorrell and Jorian Wilson each added two RBIs for the Aggies. Ethan Darden took the loss, falling to 4-2 after being charged with three runs, two earned, over two-plus innings.
State improved to 39-14 overall and 16-12 in SEC play, while Texas A&M dropped to 37-13 and 16-11. Tomas Valincius earned the win for the Bulldogs, moving to 9-2 after allowing six earned runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts over five innings.
MSU and A&M met Friday for Game 2, with Game 3 scheduled for an 11 a.m. broadcast today on the SEC Network.
Philip Poe is sports editor.
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