Mississippi State Baseball’s offense woke up just enough against the Southeastern Conference’s worst pitching staff to hold on against a ninth-inning collapse.
The Bulldogs (23-16, 6-11 SEC) hit four home runs Saturday afternoon (Slate Alford, Amani Larry, Kellum Clark and Luke Hancock) in their 11-10 victory at Auburn to tie the series at 1, with Sunday’s rubber match set for 1 p.m. (SEC+). It almost wasn’t enough as Auburn (22-16-1, 6-11 SEC) scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth and brought the game-winning run to the plate, before Aaron Nixon struck out Ryan Dyal with the tying run on third to end the game.
Trailing 2-0 in the top of the sixth, MSU scored six runs, including a three-run home run by Alford, to take a 4-2 lead, and a two-run homer by Larry two batters later.
The Bulldogs, who fell 2-1 in Friday night’s series opener, had struck out 18 times in the series prior to that six-run inning, which began with a sacrifice flyout with the bases loaded by Clark to score Hunter Hines, and cut MSU’s deficit to one run.
On the next at-bat, Alford gave the Bulldogs the lead on a moonshot that hit the scoreboard at Plainsman Park.
MSU broke the game open in the eighth with a solo home run from Clark and a bases-loaded-two-RBI single by Ross Highfill to grow the lead to 9-3. Hancock tallied MSU’s fourth homer of the game with a two-run shot in the top of the ninth.
Auburn’s ninth-inning rally began on a solo home run from Kason Howell, who later cleared the bases on a three-RBI triple in the inning. Cole Foster added an RBI-single (his second of the game). Bobby Peirce hit an RBI-double and Ike Irish added an RBI-single.
MSU almost wasted its second strong start of the series from its pitching staff, in Colby Holcombe’s four-inning outing, who took Landon Gartman’s spot in the rotation. Following Friday’s loss, manager Chris Lemonis said Gartman had “the week off.”
Holcombe’s lone mistake was a two-run home run by Auburn’s Cooper McMurray, who also homered in Friday’s contest against Cade Smith. Holcombe allowed just two hits, four walks and struck out five in his first-career SEC start.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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