STARKVILLE — Dudy Noble Field was waiting for one swing of the bat to explode, and that swing finally came in the bottom of the 8th inning.
Hunter Hines stepped up to the dish with the Bulldogs leading No. 2 LSU, 6-3, on Friday night, already with one homer on the day, and he was ready to add to that tally.
In an instant, he sent a majestic moonshot into right field, a 357-foot blast that officially broke things open and sent The Dude into a frenzy.
“Baseball is a funny game,” Hines said. “It’s frustrating, not going to lie, but you gotta keep going. Can’t get too hot.”
Everything went right for Mississippi State on Friday, from pitching to hitting, as the Bulldogs began Southeastern Conference play with a bang, a 10-4 win over the Tigers.
Offensively, Hines was the star of the show, going 2-for-5 at the dish with two homers and four RBIs. He was one of seven Bulldogs (14-5, 1-0 SEC) to record multi-hit games on the night as MSU recorded 16 hits, 10 off LSU’s Friday-night starter, Luke Holman.
Holman came into the series opener a perfect 4-0 this season for the Tigers (17-2, 0-1), tossing 24 scoreless innings of baseball while allowing just eight hits in the process.
Things changed dramatically in the earned run average department against the Bulldogs, with Holman allowing five runs, two earned, in 4.1 innings pitched as Mississippi State jumped on him almost immediately.
“The plan was to try to take the fastball away, and I think they did a good job of that,” Lemonis said. “They had some big swings early and they’ve been practicing on that. … That kid is one of the best in the country, if not the best, but I thought our guys did a great job.”
What ended as a blowout, however, didn’t look like that headed into the bottom of the third.
MSU starter Evan Siary got bitten by the home run bug, giving up a solo shot to Josh Pearson and a two-run blast to Tommy White.
Quickly, an early 1-0 lead became a 3-1 deficit, but the bats woke up almost immediately, scoring nine unanswered runs over the next six innings, including eight over the last four innings.
“We had a lot of two-out hits,” Hines said. “… Mississippi State and LSU is a dogfight and we wanted to win. The crowd helped us out a bunch, but in-between the lines helped us to win.”
While the offense dominated, freshman Nolan Stevens had the first of what the Bulldogs expect to be many dominant performances on the mound.
Coming in relief of Siary in the fourth, Stevens went on to record 5.1 hitless innings of baseball before allowing his first hit of the night in the ninth.
“This kid is a baseball fanatic,” Lemonis said. “He lives the game and I think that’s one reason why he came to Mississippi State. He wanted to be in a town where it’s all baseball. … He’s just a special player.”
In total, he threw 5.2 innings out of the pen, allowing one hit, one run and striking out eight, showing the poise of a senior or fifth-year pitcher on the mound.
He left to a standing ovation, a well-deserved one thanks to a pitching performance that helpe Mississippi State make a statement to begin conference play and win its first conference opener since its 2021 national championship-winning season
“It was a great feeling,” Stevens said. “Our team has been preparing for SEC play all year and when it comes to emotions, we just ride the wave. You can’t get too high or too low. … I was ready. … We have to wake up tomorrow. It’s going to be another day and we have to go win.”
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