STARKVILLE — Time and time again in the first inning Saturday, Khal Stephen had Georgia Southern’s hitters on the ropes. And all too frequently, Mississippi State’s starting pitcher was unable to find the putaway pitch with two strikes.
The Eagles started the game with three straight singles against Stephen, one of them on an 0-2 pitch and another on a 1-2 count. After Jarrett Brown doubled on the first pitch with one out to bring home the first two runs of the game, Sean White reached out for a breaking ball on another 0-2 count and punched it into center field for another single to drive in two more.
Before the Bulldogs even came to bat, the game — which ended in an 11-4 MSU loss — felt wrapped up.
“That was the biggest issue of his start,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We make two great pitches and then leave a ball in a different part of the zone. He’s such a command guy. Usually you don’t see that from him. He left some balls in different spots and they took advantage of it.”
The Purdue transfer, who struck out 11 batters over seven innings of one-run ball in his first start as a Bulldog last weekend against Air Force, could not make it out of the third inning this time after loading the bases with one out in that frame. All three runners would eventually score, thanks in large part to another two-strike hit by Jonathan Jaime against Cole Cheatham that plated two more for Georgia Southern.
With the crowd no longer a factor, the Eagles continued to add on against the MSU bullpen, with Tyson Hardin allowing two runs in the fourth and Miami transfer Karson Ligon surrendering a home run to Jaime to lead off the fifth.
Perhaps no play summed up the game better than a botched rundown that gave Georgia Southern (2-4) its 11th and final run. Ligon appeared to have Luke Odden picked off at second base and fired to Amani Larry, but Larry’s throw to third hit Odden in the back and trickled toward left field, allowing Odden to come around and score.
“It’s a hard game to play when you fall behind so much early on,” Lemonis said. “They stayed in it. They were energetic, they were fired up, they were competing their tails off. It’s just a tough start when you fall behind somebody like that, you feel like you’re chasing the whole game.”
The Bulldogs (3-4) managed just one run over the first four innings against Eagles left-hander Mitchell Gross, then pieced together a rally with one out in the fifth. Larry and David Mershon each hit an RBI single, and reliever Davis Smith issued a bases-loaded walk to Hunter Hines.
But Smith carved up MSU’s lineup for the entire rest of the game, escaping the jam in the fifth and holding the hosts to one hit in the last four innings. Catcher Joe Powell was the only Bulldog with a multi-hit game, and all seven of MSU’s hits were singles.
The ambidextrous Jurrangelo Cijntje will take the mound Sunday for the Bulldogs in the rubber game of the series. Cijntje allowed one run on two hits over four innings, striking out eight, in his season debut against Air Force to help MSU to a win last Sunday.
“There’s no clear-cut leader. We have an entire group of guys in the locker room, and we’re all encouraging each other,” Powell said. “We had a players’ meeting in here the other day and it was just super encouraging. … It’s about us and it’s about what we do for Mississippi State and it’s how we go about every single day, working hard, making each other better.”
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