The Mississippi State softball team cruised through its first three games Friday and Saturday in the Bulldog Invitational in Starkville.
Then the Bulldogs made the home fans at Nusz Park nervous in a 6-5, extra-inning win in their fourth contest.
When Fa Leilua’s walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the eighth landed well beyond the left-field fence, it capped a stellar comeback by a Mississippi State team that probably shouldn’t have needed it.
The Bulldogs (12-5) fell behind 5-0 early against an Alcorn State team they had just beaten 16-0 on the run rule Friday night. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Mississippi State finally scratched across the tying run on an RBI groundout by Christian Quinn.
It was the final play of a slow but steady comeback effort as MSU scored in five of the last six innings to get the win. Leilua singled and came around to score on an error in the third, Carter Spexarth hit a solo shot in the fifth, and Chloe Malau’ulu drove in two-runs with a sixth-inning double before Quinn’s grounder to second scored Paige Cook to tie the game.
That sent the contest to extra innings, and with one out, Leilua drove a 1-2 pitch inside the left-field line for the walk-off shot.
Alcorn State got four runs off Kenley Hawk in the first inning off a single up the middle, an infield double, a wild pitch and a single back to the pitcher. Chloey Morgan added another run for the Braves in the second with an RBI double against Grace Fagan.
But Annie Willis earned the win with six innings of stellar relief, allowing just one hit and striking out nine. She kept the Bulldogs within striking distance, and eventually, they struck.
Mississippi State closes out the tournament against the winner of Saturday night’s game between Ball State and Western Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Here’s a recap of the Bulldogs’ first three games in the Bulldog Invitational.
Mississippi State 10, Western Kentucky 0, five innings, Saturday
Western Kentucky posed perhaps the biggest threat to Mississippi State in round-robin play, but the Bulldogs had little trouble with the Hilltoppers on Saturday afternoon.
Mississippi State bookended an eight-run second inning with a tally in the first and third to run-rule Western Kentucky 10-0.
Madisyn Kennedy hit a three-run homer capped the crooked number the Bulldogs put up in the second. It was Kennedy’s second run scored of the inning after getting things started by scoring on a wild pitch earlier in the frame.
Leilua and Carter Spexarth had RBI singles in the inning, and Cook walked to force in a run before Kennedy hit a softball off her face on the left-field scoreboard.
Spexarth plated the Bulldogs’ first run with a single in the first, and Mia Davidson had an RBI double in the third.
Emily Williams got the win with four shutout innings, and Alyssa Loza pitched a scoreless fifth.
Mississippi State 16, Alcorn State 0, five innings, Friday
The Bulldogs scored at least three runs in every inning in a 16-0, run-rule win over the Braves in five innings Friday evening.
Davidson went 4 for 4 with four runs scored, an RBI double and an RBI single.
“I really think the game rewards her,” head coach Samantha Ricketts said in a news release from Mississippi State. “She plays hard and runs hard out the box every hit whether it’s her first at-bat or her eighth. She can hit different speeds to all different locations of the ballpark. It’s good to see her back in her rhythm.”
Spexarth was 2 for 2 with four RBIs, doubling home two runs in the second and hitting a two-run homer as part of a seven-run third. Malau’ulu hit a two-run homer and finished 2 for 2 with two runs scored and two runs driven in.
Jackie McKenna was 2 for 2, and freshman Addison Purvis had her first extra-base hit with a double in the fourth inning.
Aspen Wesley struck out a career-high nine batters in four innings for the Bulldogs, allowing just one hit.
“Aspen really has been having a great season,” Ricketts said. “The poise that she has and the ability to locate the ball, she induces a lot of swings and misses because of that. I really like the confidence she is building in herself and with the team behind her with us going into conference play.”
Fagan worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless fifth and close out the game.
Mississippi State 8, Ball State 3, Friday
Leilua climbed into third place on the Bulldogs’ all-time leaderboard in home runs with a three-run shot to open the scoring in Friday afternoon’s 8-3 win over Ball State.
Her no-doubter to left field, which scored Mia Davidson and Malau’ulu in the first inning, was the 37th in the Arizona State transfer’s time in Starkville.
“For Fa to already be on our career list and she hasn’t even spent her whole career here really is a testament to how great she has been in her time in maroon and white,” Ricketts said. “All of her home runs are great, but that one in particular was important after giving up a run at the top of the first, to get that run back for us and put us in front.”
Spexarth followed with an RBI on a foulout to left field, scoring Anna Kate Segars. Leilua brought home another run on an infield single in the second.
Montana Davidson drove in her sister Mia and Leilua with a fourth-inning single, and Spexarth scored Segars on a groundout later in the inning.
Willis allowed all three Ball State runs (two earned) in six innings, walking two and striking out six. Loza pitched a 1-2-3 seventh.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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