STARKVILLE — The emotions were flowing for Stone Simmons on Sunday before he threw his first pitch in a game at Dudy Noble Field in nearly three years. But once he did, it was business as usual for the sixth-year senior right-hander coming off two elbow surgeries.
Simmons pitched three scoreless innings in his first start with Mississippi State on a cold afternoon, working his way out of a first-inning jam and settling down from there. He struck out five Manhattan batters and allowed just one hit and two walks, and the Bulldogs supported him with three early runs and completed a sweep of the Jaspers with a 5-1 victory.
“For the first half of the first inning, I was a little juiced up,” Simmons said. “Once I started feeling the cold, I was like, ‘OK, I have to focus here.’ I was walking in from the bullpen before the game and I got a little ovation. Definitely had me emotional. I was really excited. Just glad to be back.”
Guriyandel Salva walked and stole second with one out in the first, then advanced to third on Ryan Lordier’s single. But Simmons struck out Andreaus Lewis for his first punchout since March of 2022, then picked off Lordier at first base to end the inning.
He fanned four straight batters between the second and third innings, the last three of them looking, and finished his outing with 50 pitches.
“I was looking into a sea of people that I recognized,” Simmons said. “I know most of them. It’s really meaningful for me, and I know the rest of the guys feel the exact same way. You reach a point where it doesn’t feel like pressure as much as it does support.”
Each of the first four relief pitchers MSU (3-0) used was making his first appearance as a Bulldog. Freshman Ryan McPherson took over on the mound in the fourth, and while he did allow a solo home run to Dylan Mayer in the fifth, he was otherwise perfect through two innings. Another freshman, left-hander Dane Burns, pitched a scoreless sixth.
Nate Williams is in his third season at MSU after spending two years at Florence-Darlington Technical College in South Carolina, but did not appear in a game until Sunday due to injuries. He worked around a two-out walk and struck out three batters in a scoreless seventh inning before giving way to redshirt freshman Mikhai Grant, who missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Grant put up another zero in the eighth.
“Ryan McPherson coming back, he got hurt in high school. Nate Williams got hurt in (junior college). Dane Burns had been out. That’s his first touches in two years. Mikhai Grant,” Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis said. “A lot of kids coming back and really helping us. We missed them last year, but having them right now gives us some great depth and experience.”
The Bulldogs rallied with two outs in the bottom of the first when Ace Reese drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on Noah Sullivan’s RBI single. Sullivan took second on an error, and Hunter Hines singled through the right side to score him and give the hosts an early 2-0 lead.
Aaron Downs singled to lead off the second, and he too stole his way into scoring position. Sophomore shortstop Dylan Cupp doubled down the left-field line to drive in Downs, and he finished the day 2-for-3 with a walk from the ninth spot in the batting order.
Nolan Stevens capped the scoring for the day in the seventh with a two-run home run, a laser beam to right-center field that hit the top of the wall and bounced over.
“The preparation is the same for everyone else on our team,” Stevens said. “You wake up, get ready for the game, head to the field and put in the same work everyone else on the team is doing. We all have the same work ethic, and that’s why we’re a really good team this year.”
MSU travels three hours south to Hattiesburg on Tuesday to battle Southern Miss for the first of two meetings between the in-state foes. The Golden Eagles, who swept a four-game series from Lafayette this weekend, will visit Starkville on Mar. 4.
“We took care of business this weekend. You could argue that we should be scoring more, but it’s a cold day. We pitched great,” Simmons said. “One game in a series is probably going to be close, and today was the game that had the potential to be a really close game, but we locked it down on the bump and we scored enough easily to win the game. It’s huge for our team going forward and it tells you a lot about who we are and the level of focus we play with.”
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