In Sunday’s Starkville Regional finale, Mississippi State wasted no time in putting its foot on the gas early with three straight solo home runs to spark its way to a 19-5 win over the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for its first NCAA Regional championship since 2021.
The bats came alive early for the the bombing Bulldogs (43-17), who used 20 hits to smack seven homers – three through the first four innings – to earn the right to advance to the Athens Super Regional and take on Georgia for a trip to the College World Series. The Ragin’ Cajuns end their season at 41-25 overall.
Leadoff batter Gehrig Frei got the scoring party started for MSU in the first inning with a solo shot off the Cajuns’ starter Sawyer Pruitt. The score sent all of Dudy Noble into a frenzy, and freshman Jacob Parker added to it two at-bats later with another solo blast that traveled a total of 406 feet. Ryder Woodson made it three in a row with another homer in the second inning to put MSU 3-0.
While it was exciting, it wasn’t exactly a lead the Bulldogs were comfortable with against the Cajuns, who hit four homers to defeat Cincinnati 8-6 earlier on Sunday to advance to the regional finals, and Louisiana chipped right back into the game with a solo homer by Noah Lewis off MSU starting hurler Ryan McPherson.
The Bulldogs didn’t blink and it was bombs away from there. State tacked on four runs in the fourth inning to begin its climb to the top with a double by Reed Stallman getting the sequence underway. Kevin Milewski followed up with a single down the third-base line to score Stallman, and Bryce Chance laid down a sacrifice bunt to score another, Frei landed his second knock of the game for another RBI single and Ace Reese hammered his 22nd homer of the year for two more runs to end the inning.
Both squads traded a run each in the fifth inning and the Cajuns tacked on another score on a solo homer by Colt Brown. State just shrugged it off and kept producing hits. An RBI double by Parker in the seventh gave way to a barrage of five runs for MSU. Vytas Valincius added another RBI double, Stallman tripled for a score and Woodson ended the inning off with a two-run shot for the 13-3 advantage,
McPherson showed out on the mound to help get the win and struck out seven through five innings with zero walks and only five hits given up. But after McPherson the Bulldogs’ pitching began to struggle. Freshman hurler Jack Bauer came in for relief and only fared 1 ⅓ innings, fanning three but giving up four hits. He was pulled for Maddox Miller in the seventh, who gave up a sacrifice bunt for a score and an RBI single by Lee Amedee scored another for the Cajuns. Ben Davis replaced Miller in the seventh and got the Bulldogs out of the bases-loaded jam and sent them off to the eighth, where Parker blasted his second homer of the game for two runs.
Valincius put the game out of commission in the top of the ninth with a grand slam. Dane Burns, the team’s fifth pitcher of the game, closed out the contest on the mound.
The win for State is its third in a row with at least 10 runs.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
