STARKVILLE – No. 4 Mississippi State lost its first home game of 2026 to open the series against No. 5 Georgia on Thursday. The Top 5 Battle of the Bulldogs turned into a one-sided affair as the visitors took Game One through a prolific start, taking advantage of some defensive mishaps by the hosts, but head coach Brian O’Connor’s team came storming back to make it a game in the last three innings.
MSU actually matched Georgia in terms of hits, but there was a lack of execution with runners in scoring position, leaving seven runners on base.
The visitors got on top of starting pitcher Charlie Foster early in the game. Second baseman Tre Phelps got home on a passed ball through catcher Kevin Milewski to open the scoring and then launched a three-run home run the following inning to put his team in the driver’s seat.
MSU had some sloppy moments defensively, even as reliever Tyler Pitzer brought some calm to the game on the mound. Milewski had two more passed balls, one leading to a sac fly and the other giving the visitors another free run. UGA put up at least one run in each of the first five innings.
MSU’s offense was slow to respond to the fast start from the visiting Bulldogs. Gehrig Frei had a solo home run in the second inning and Ryder Woodson walked in a run with the bases loaded in the third. It was an important two-out run for MSU, but a missed opportunity to add more.
The bottom started to fall out for the Bulldogs after that. Another sac fly and a pair of RBI hits from Kenny Ishikawa and Phelps, respectively, put four more runs on the board for UGA, and MSU couldn’t find answers in the home halves, putting themselves in danger of a home run-rule defeat.
O’Connor went to Peyton Fowler out of the bullpen, who posted the first zero of the night for MSU, and Jack Bauer came on in the seventh to make it another scoreless inning at 10-2 UGA.
The bottom half of the seventh saw the MSU bats finally find some momentum. Aidan Teel gave his side a leadoff solo home run, and Ryder Woodson, Jacob Parker and Andrew Raymond delivered RBI hits on two outs to make it a five-run home half and cut the deficit to just three runs with two innings to play.
Bauer had a bit more pressure on him with his team truly back in the contest, but kept his nerve to record a pair of strikeouts and a flyout. He handed it back to the top of the MSU order in the bottom of the eighth, but a 1-2-3 inning put the ball back in his hands in the ninth. He got two outs before loading the bases, but Chris Billingsley Jr. helped him out with a strikeout for the final out.
MSU was down to its final three outs and got off to a great start. A leadoff walk from Reed Stallman and a single from Frei put two aboard with no one out. Woodson struck out but Parker walked to load the bases with one gone for Raymond. He and Chance got one run home each, but Teel’s groundout sealed the loss.
The Bulldogs will meet again on Friday at 6 p.m.
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