Bryce Chance did not start Tuesday night’s game for Mississippi State, but he still delivered when it mattered most.
MSU’s sophomore outfielder entered as a pinch-hitter for Nolan Stevens in the eighth inning and remained in the game as the designated hitter, and with one out in the top of the 10th, Chance blasted a solo home run over the left-center field wall to give State the lead over Samford in what ended up being a 9-5 victory in Homewood, Ala.
The visitors broke out in front in the first against Samford starter Jacob Newman, scoring twice on a Dakota Jordan RBI double and a Hunter Hines sacrifice fly. But Samford got one back in its half of the first against Pico Kohn, who missed all of last season with an injury and was making just his second appearance and first start of 2024.
Colby Holcombe relieved Kohn in the third and allowed the tying run to score on a single, a stolen base, a balk and a sacrifice fly, and Samford surged ahead with three runs in the fourth. Cam Schuelke settled things down with MSU trailing 5-2, and State (18-8) quickly answered back in the fifth on back-to-back long home runs by Jordan and Hines to tie the game once again.
Jordan’s two-run shot to straightaway center field, his 12th of the season, traveled 438 feet. Hines’ homer was his seventh of the year and sixth in his last eight games.
Schuelke kept things even with scoreless innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh, working out of a two-on, nobody-out jam in the seventh by getting a strikeout and a double play. Brooks Auger worked the eighth and escaped a jam of his own, and lefty Tyler Davis stranded two Samford baserunners in the ninth to send the game to extras.
Chance’s homer opened the floodgates for MSU’s offense. Aaron Downs and Johnny Long followed with back-to-back singles, and both scored on David Mershon’s two-out, two-run single up the middle. Mershon was hitless in his first five at-bats but gave State a pair of big insurance runs. Jordan’s RBI single brought in Amani Larry for the final run of the game, and Davis struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th, giving him five strikeouts in just two innings of work.
MSU is in for a tough task this weekend with a three-game series at No. 6 Florida.
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