STARKVILLE — Dudy Noble Field rumbled quickly to life when Mississippi State shortstop Lane Forsythe walked on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the top of the eighth inning.
One day prior, Bulldogs fans in attendance had seen a comeback like this as MSU came back from a 7-3 deficit to beat Notre Dame 9-8 in Game 1 of the Starkville Super Regional. The Bulldogs trailed 8-1, but hope still abounded among the 13,971 packing the stands. The top of the order was at the plate with nobody out, setting the stage for a big inning.
Then center fielder Rowdey Jordan shot the first pitch he saw to shortstop, where Notre Dame’s Zach Prajzner flipped to second baseman Jared Miller. Jordan just beat the rap at first to avoid a double play, but the damage was done. The roar died in the throats of the crowd, and after right fielder Tanner Allen walked, two straight outs killed the rally, too.
Mississippi State (44-16) simply failed to recapture Saturday afternoon’s magic at the plate in a 9-1 loss to Notre Dame (34-12), sending the Super Regional to a winner-take-all Game 3 at 6 p.m. Monday.
“Yesterday, we matched them offensively,” Bulldogs coach Chris Lemonis said. “We’ve got to do that again tomorrow.”
If MSU can’t, its season will end short of a third straight trip to the College World Series that seemed tantalizingly close for much of the weekend. When Landon Sims fired the final pitch of Saturday’s comeback win, the Dudy Noble crowd emitted a championship clamor heard from Starkville to Omaha and everywhere in between.
It was the same noise that burst from the bleachers when Jordan led off Sunday evening’s game by blasting a center-cut fastball from Notre Dame starter Aidan Tyrell off the wall in right-center field. Jordan sped to third base, and Allen knocked him in one pitch later on a sacrifice fly.
Then Tyrell locked in, delivering a career performance for the second straight weekend. He went eight innings to beat Central Michigan in the South Bend Regional finale, and Sunday, he offered 7.1 innings without allowing another run.
“We just needed him to be the cool, calm, collected Aidan Tyrell, and that’s what he was,” Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett said.
Tyrell threw his fastball at the knees for strikes, got MSU hitters to chase sliders and change-ups below the zone and basically baffled the Bulldogs all night. He allowed just five hits, walking three and striking out six.
“He’s just a great competitor, man,” Allen said. “He really just shut us down all night long.”
The fruitless eighth inning turned out to be the first — and only — time Mississippi State had multiple baserunners all game. The Bulldogs’ leadoff man reached four times after Jordan’s triple in the first; not once did he score.
Defensively, meanwhile, Notre Dame turned the tables by cutting Saturday’s total of four errors down to one Sunday. Meanwhile, it was Mississippi State’s turn to boot the baseball, as two early miscues proved costly for left-hander Christian MacLeod and the Bulldogs.
Prajzner brought home the tying run in the first inning with a well-placed chopper to the right side as first baseman Luke Hancock fielded and flipped late to the pitcher. His back turned to home plate, MacLeod didn’t notice a second Fighting Irish runner attempting to score, eventually firing high and late to allow Notre Dame to take the lead.
Another error in the fourth inning plated the next Irish run when catcher Logan Tanner misfired to first on a bunt, his throw giving Hancock a tough hop and scoring a run from second. Notre Dame promptly broke the game open with a three-run homer by catcher David LaManna.
“We’re going to have to be better defensively tomorrow and make everything they get earned,” Lemonis said. “In these pressure environments, you’ve got to make plays.”
Still, MacLeod powered through the fourth, completed the fifth and departed after a leadoff single by Prajzner in the sixth. He ended up with a line of six earned runs on just five hits when reliever Brandon Smith served up a two-run home run to third baseman Jack Brannigan.
But Lemonis said the redshirt sophomore delivered a solid outing, as a hot-hitting Notre Dame team failed to hit him hard prior to LaManna’s blast into the Left Field Lounge.
“I know this sounds crazy — I thought he was pretty good and his stuff was as good as he had all year,” Lemonis said.
On offense, the feeling was similar. Allen said the Bulldogs saw the ball well against Tyrell and reliever Alex Rao, but a lot of well-hit pitches found Irish gloves. Miller made a nice diving catch to rob Kellum Clark with a man on and nobody out in the fifth inning, an example of Notre Dame’s superior defense.
“We hit a lot of balls hard; they just didn’t fall our way tonight,” Allen said. “That’s baseball.”
The senior, in his final weekend at Dudy Noble, knows that can’t happen again Monday with so much on the line. Notre Dame will start lefty Will Mercer with Mississippi State’s pitching plan yet to be determined as the Irish and Bulldogs battle it out one final time.
“I just want to go out on a positive note,” Allen said. “Everything else can just be on the back burner, to be honest with you. All I care about is a win. It’s going to be a fun night tomorrow.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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