HOOVER, Ala. — Mississippi State broke out of its offensive doldrums at last, and before the ninth inning this time.
But after rallying for five runs in the fifth to take the lead, the Bulldogs could do next to nothing against the Tennessee bullpen, and the top-seeded Volunteers eliminated No. 5 seed MSU from the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Friday night with a 6-5 victory.
The Bulldogs’ NCAA Tournament fate is now out of their hands, and they will learn whether they will host a regional on Sunday evening before the full bracket is announced Monday.
“We were able to put together a big inning. We battled,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “It’s been a fun week here. I thought we had a little more magic left in us there late in the game. Tip your hat to their team, they played well and finished the ball game. Now we prepare for regional baseball next weekend and get ready to have some fun.”
Playing on the fourth day in a row for the first time all season, the Bulldogs (38-21) were sharp defensively early on, but with the bases loaded for Tennessee (48-11) with one out in the top of the seventh, second baseman Amani Larry’s relay throw to first on a potential double-play ball sailed much too high as the Volunteers scored two runs on the play to tie the game.
Blake Burke’s leadoff home run in the eighth was the decisive blow.
“That’s a tough error,” Lemonis said. “There’s two chopped balls in the infield, and sometimes that’s just baseball. Early in the game they would probably say they hit some balls really hard, and I would probably agree with them, that we were able to catch. So baseball usually evens out.”
MSU starter Pico Kohn labored through 3 1/3 innings, throwing 72 pitches, and stranded two baserunners in each of the first two frames before giving up single runs in the third and fourth. The Volunteers added another run in the fifth against Cole Cheatham, and it looked as though they had all they needed considering the Bulldogs were being held hitless by Tennessee ace Drew Beam through four.
But Amani Larry was hit by a pitch to lead off the MSU fifth, and Joe Powell singled with one out for the Bulldogs’ first hit. Bryce Chance and David Mershon each worked a walk with two outs, with Mershon’s walk forcing in a run, and then Connor Hujsak ripped a two-run single up the middle to tie the game. Hujsak finished the SEC Tournament with seven RBI in four games, including game-winning hits against Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
“Once we broke it through, it felt like we were on top of the world there for a little bit,” Hujsak said. “We just have to keep going and get better with time.”
Dakota Jordan followed with a two-run single of his own that snapped an 0-for-20 skid and gave the Bulldogs the lead. Jordan and Hunter Hines, who went 0-for-4 and is now hitless in his last 24 at-bats, both received nice ovations from the MSU fans each time they came to the plate.
“It felt so good for us, and I’m sure it felt even better for (Jordan),” Hujsak said. “We know what he’s capable of. He’s done it all year. We all go through it, and seeing that go through was big time.”
The Bulldogs could not hold the lead, though, with high-leverage relievers Tyson Hardin and Tyler Davis both struggling a bit in their third appearances of the week. Davis had not given up a home run all year until allowing the long ball to Burke, who reached base safely in all five of his plate appearances.
MSU wasted Larry’s leadoff double in the sixth, and Mershon was caught trying to steal second base to end the seventh on a close play. State then went down in order in the eighth and ninth.
Entering Friday, the Bulldogs were at No. 21 in the RPI and have five losses against teams outside the top 100, more than anyone else in contention to host. But they also have 16 top-25 wins, more than any other team around them in the RPI, and counting the Governor’s Cup victory over Ole Miss and the two wins in Hoover, MSU has 20 wins against SEC teams.
The Bulldogs entered Friday at No. 11 in the KPI, an alternate ranking system developed by Kevin Pagua at Michigan State that the NCAA selection committee is taking into account this year. They also play in the largest on-campus stadium in all of college baseball and own 24 of the top 25 single-game on-campus attendance records.
“We play in the best league in the country by far,” Lemonis said. “We’ve got 20 SEC wins. We started slow. The only reason we’re having this conversation is we lost four games in the first week of the season, when we had seven guys injured. Since that time, every other week of the season, we’ve proved that we have a special group, and that’s not even taking into (account) the fact that we have the nicest ballpark in college baseball.”
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