STARKVILLE — It’s been a long time since Mississippi State baseball has shut out an opponent.

In fact, the last time the Bulldogs did, they hoisted the first national championship in school history after defeating Vanderbilt, 9-0, in the College World Series finals.

Saturday evening provided much lower stakes, but an equally dominant performance for MSU, holding Mount St. Mary’s to just four hits as starting pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje shined, striking out 10 over 6.2 innings of work, both career-highs for him.

Once again, the offense came up when the Bulldogs needed it most, culminating in a 6-0 win and a series sweep of the Mountaineers at Dudy Noble Field.

“We feel like we’ve had a hiccup here and there,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “You’re trying to play consistent baseball, bring a consistent product. Putting a consistent product out there is the key.”

Consistent baseball is what Mississippi State (8-4) has been looking for and consistent baseball is what the Bulldogs produced this weekend, and it started with the weekend rotation.

The trio of Nate Dohm, Khal Stephen and Cijntje were trotted out for the third-straight weekend, and for the first time, all three put together quality starts, limiting the Mountaineers to one run over 19.2 combined innings of work.

Then came the offense, highlighted by the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader where the Bulldogs were no-hit going into the fifth inning. However, where hits were hard to come by, the offense persevered and came through.

“All it takes is someone to set the bat on fire, have a little spark in it,” shortstop Dylan Cupp said. “Pass it on to the next guy and the fire grows. We had that one hit early on, but it’s just playing the game of baseball. You have to play the game of baseball better than the other team and you’ll be successful.”

If there was anyone that embodied that mindset on Saturday, it was MSU’s freshman shortstop as Cupp had himself a pair of big hits in both games of the doubleheader.

The latter came in the seventh inning of the series finale, a two-run single that opened the floodgates as the Bulldogs took an emphatic 5-0 lead at that point.

“You get up there and we’re facing a guy that’s not throwing very hard and then they bring in a guy who’s throwing hard,” Cupp said. “I’m not going to lit, it looks like a little piece of Advil coming at you, but it gave us some freedom. We knew he was a hard-thrower, but we figured ourselves out and did what good baseball players do.”

Series sweeps are hard to come by in the game of baseball, so with the opportunity in front of them to take all three, Mississippi State didn’t waver.

The Bulldogs are riding on a high, now on a five-game winning streak overall, and they’re not looking to come down from it anytime soon.

“A sweep is a sweep,” outfielder Connor Hujsak said. “It feels great. The goal every weekend is to win the series. If you can sweep, you gotta take advantage of it. … It’s contagious. I think it’s going to keep us going, keep us rolling. It’s a good feeling all-around.”