STARKVILLE — Aaron Downs had seen plenty of action as a reserve outfielder in his first three years at Mississippi State, but with two starting spots available heading into his senior season, Downs wasted no time making a case to play more.
After hitting his first home run as a Bulldog as a pinch-hitter in Friday’s first game, Downs started in left field in the second game of the doubleheader, and he drove in MSU’s first run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning. He hit a two-run single in the third and added another run-scoring single in the sixth, giving him seven RBI between the two games on the day as the No. 18 Bulldogs thrashed Manhattan 13-1 to take both ends of the twinbill.
“It’s been awesome,” Downs said. “(Head coach Chris Lemonis) said the hardest part for me right now is we just have so many guys who are so good, and he can’t play everybody at once in the outfield. It seems like top to bottom, everybody can hit. That’s a good problem to have, so I can’t ask for anything more.”
Karson Ligon, in his second season at MSU after transferring from Miami, never threw more than 3 ⅓ innings in any of his 15 appearances last year. But he is being stretched out as a starter for 2025 and looked good in his season debut, striking out eight batters without issuing a walk over four innings.
The Jaspers struck first against him on back-to-back hits to score a run in the second inning, but Ligon settled down from there and retired nine of his final 10 batters.
“I’m much harder to hit when my off-speed is going,” Ligon said. “(Pitching coach Justin Parker) has pushed me way harder than anyone has ever pushed me. He’s pushed me to make changes I needed to make, stuff that I would think was crazy in the past. He’s opened my mind to making those changes, and I’ve seen tons of benefit from it.”
The Bulldogs (2-0) struck back quickly in the bottom of the second, with Bryce Chance’s double sparking a two-run rally that put MSU in front to stay. Chance added an RBI single an inning later, and then Downs flicked his bat out at a breaking ball tailing away and punched it into center field to bring in two more runs.
“(Downs) is probably the most loved kid in our program, from our teammates to the people in the community,” Lemonis said. “He’s had a good career in ways, but hadn’t had that big year yet. Sometimes that senior does, and no better guy to get it from because he’s super talented. He’s fought through some injuries, fought through some stuff. Really happy for him today.”
Ben Davis, a junior college transfer from Itawamba Community College, had four strikeouts in two innings of scoreless relief. Virginia transfer Chase Hungate made his Bulldogs debut with a scoreless seventh.
MSU tacked on four runs in the sixth, capped by a pinch-hit, two-run double by Nolan Stevens down the left-field line. The Bulldogs ended the game early in the seventh via the run rule when another pinch-hitter who had started the first game, Reed Stallman, crushed a three-run homer to right-center.
Stone Simmons will make his long-awaited return to the Dudy Noble Field pitcher’s mound Sunday as MSU goes for the series sweep. It will be his first appearance in nearly three full years after a series of elbow injuries kept him in the dugout.
“We were very approach-driven,” Lemonis said. “We stayed on some balls, moved some runners, two-out hits, just played the game of baseball. With the wind blowing in today and you’re not seeing a ton of velocity, sometimes you have a tendency to overswing, and I thought our guys did a good job staying locked in.”
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