Hardly anything has come easy for Mississippi State in midweek games this year, and Tuesday night was no exception. But behind a three-run home run by Dakota Jordan and four outstanding innings in relief from Cam Schuelke, the Bulldogs got past Memphis 6-4 on the road Tuesday evening for their fifth consecutive win.
MSU (27-14) jumped on Tigers starter Logan Rushing in the first inning. Amani Larry walked to start the game and David Mershon and Jordan each singled to plate the game’s first run. Connor Hujsak, coming off a walk-off hit to complete a sweep of Auburn on Sunday, drove in another run with a single of his own later in the inning.
But after a clean first frame, Bulldogs starter Pico Kohn ran into trouble in the second, giving up three straight hits as Memphis (18-23) quickly tied the game. He escaped the inning with the game still even thanks to a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play as catcher Joe Powell nabbed a runner trying to steal second.
The top of the MSU batting order came through again in the third — Larry drew his second walk of the game and Mershon followed with an infield hit. Jordan then launched his 16th home run of the season well over the wall in left to put the Bulldogs on top 5-2. The blast traveled 417 feet and left Jordan’s bat at 110 miles per hour.
“It’s good to win,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We had a lot of opportunities to spread that game open early. Give (Memphis) credit, they made the plays and made some pitches, but (this was) a very coachable game. There’s a lot of game notes for me to go over with our team.”
Evan Siary worked a scoreless bottom of the third, and after the Tigers put two runners on base with one out in the fourth, Colby Holcombe entered in relief and got out of the inning on a double play. But Holcombe allowed the first three batters to reach in the fifth, at which point MSU turned to Schuelke.
Schuelke struck out a pair to escape the inning, but not before Memphis trimmed its deficit to a single run. He remained sharp through the next three innings, allowing just one hit and striking out seven without issuing a walk. The Bulldogs added a big insurance run in the eighth on doubles by Bryce Chance and freshman Ethan Pulliam, who has now started the last five games at second base and gone 7-for-15 in that span.
Left-hander Tyler Davis closed things out with a perfect ninth for his first save of the season. MSU now heads to Vanderbilt for a three-game series against the No. 11 Commodores starting Friday evening.
”They’ve got a good ball club and some really good hitters,” Lemonis said. “I thought Cam Schuelke and (Tyler Davis) there at the end were great. If you don’t have that effort, that game’s not going in our direction.”
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