STARKVILLE — Carter Spexarth waited for a strike.

After graduate first baseman Fa Leilua walked in front of her, the Mississippi State senior stood in with two on and two out in the bottom of the fifth inning Wednesday against No. 17 Tennessee.

Spexarth took the first pitch in the zone from Volunteers ace Ashley Rogers then watched the second for a ball.

“I was just waiting for her to leave a good pitch and, with two outs, just do what I can — not try to do too much,” Spexarth said.

On Rogers’ 1-1 pitch, Spexarth got her strike. Then she delivered one.

She lined the softball to the gap in right center field, bringing home third baseman Montana Davidson from second base and scoring Leilua from first. Spexarth claimed second and celebrated with a pair of fist pumps as her two-run double broke a scoreless tie.

It was the impetus Mississippi State needed. The Bulldogs (29-22, 5-15 Southeastern Conference) finished off a 2-1 win in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader and jumped on the Vols (38-10, 11-9 SEC) early to win Game 2, 6-2.

Mississippi State came out on top for the fifth time in seven conference games, including the weekend’s series win at South Carolina, after starting 0-13 in SEC play.

“We struggled before, but now it feels like everything’s coming together,” outfielder Brylie St. Clair said. “It just feels perfect to be able to get some wins.”

The Bulldogs couldn’t have done it without St. Clair, who came up huge the half-inning after Spexarth’s go-ahead hit. She ran down a sinking line drive in shallow left-center to prevent an extra-base hit and keep a Tennessee runner at second, and left fielder Chloe Malau’ulu leapt at the wall to take a likely home run away from the next batter.

“It won the game for us, 100 percent,” said Spexarth, who was subbed out of right field before the half-inning as coach Samantha Ricketts rearranged her outfield. “I think those late-inning defenders are huge for us, so it was nice.”

A pair of two-out doubles against starter Emily Williams scored a Tennessee run in the seventh, but the right-hander came back to strike out the Vols’ Chelsea Seggern looking to earn the win. Williams allowed six hits and struck out seven in a strong performance in the circle.

“Throwing the whole game and just completely mowing their hitters down, I think she did outstanding,” St. Clair said.

Being able to beat the Vols’ ace Rogers and her miniscule ERA of just over 1 gave the Bulldogs confidence headed into Game 2 against left-hander Callie Turner, Spexarth said.

“I think our mindset was just ‘attack,’” she said.

Mississippi State did that from the outset as Leilua crushed a two-run homer to left to open the scoring in the first inning. The Bulldogs added four more runs in the frame in a variety of ways — a single, a fielder’s choice, an error and a wild pitch.

It was another sign of progress for a team that was known to wait until the sixth or seventh to mount a comeback that often ended up falling short.

“That’s really been the message for the last few weeks: the first inning, the first pitch is just as important as the last inning, and not to wait until the seventh to try to make something happen,” Ricketts said. “We’ve had a lot more action in the first inning the past few weeks, so it was good for them to come out and attack.”

Tennessee got a run back against Annie Willis on a sacrifice fly in the second, and when the Bulldogs loaded the bases with nobody out but failed to score, it hinted at danger.

None came.

Willis settled down after allowing a run in the third, Alyssa Loza shut out the Vols over the final three innings, and Mississippi State clinched the sweep in a nightcap far less eventful than the preceding contest.

Ricketts said it was just what she wanted to see. The Bulldogs weren’t satisfied with winning just the first game, especially after their recent hot stretch, and they backed it up on the field.

“For the team to continue to buy in and to not just quit and lay down and say, ‘There’s always next year,’ as many people would have expected us to, I think that’s what I’m just most proud of,” Ricketts said. “We continue to fight and scratch and claw even when it’s not pretty and compete.”

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.