STARKVILLE — Jacob Robson’s first at-bat of the game was a preview of things to come for the Mississippi State baseball team.

The junior outfielder struck out on a changeup in the dirt from Oral Roberts starting pitcher Cale Tims. The next two batters — Jack Kruger and Nathaniel Lowe — also struck out as the Bulldogs went down in order in the first inning.

The No. 15 Bulldogs struck out 12 times and lost 3-1 to the Golden Eagles Wednesday night at Dudy Noble Field to lose their second consecutive midweek game.

“I think what happened was we swung at a lot of breaking balls in the dirt, a lot of offspeeds,” Robson said. “I think if we had minimized the chasing balls out of the strike zone we’re in a lot better shape.”

After holding a six-run lead twice, MSU lost 16-12 in 10 innings to Eastern Kentucky Tuesday night.

Kruger, Lowe, Gavin Collins and Hunter Stovall all struck out two times against Oral Roberts pitching.

The Bulldogs (12-5-1) entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a glimmer of hope, but Lowe, Collins and pinch hitter Cody Brown all struck out as Brady Womacks picked up his fourth save of the season.

Tims (1-0) struck out six in five innings and he allowed the one Bulldog run as Kruger singled home Luke Alexander in the third.

The Bulldogs had 15 hits against the Colonels, but had six against the Golden Eagles (8-8) with two coming after the fifth inning.

“We also struck out 12 times and I’m just guessing that eight are bounced breaking balls that we did not do a good job with,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “As good as we were offensively (Tuesday) I think we were that poor (Wednesday) offensively. But I still think we have the right guys to get this done and be a pretty good offensive club.”

The Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead when Noah Cummings homered in the second off Bulldog starter Keegan James. James threw two innings and recorded a strike out.

Tied at 1-1 in the sixth inning, pinch hitter Sam Grellner drove in Rolando Martinez with a double to right-center field to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good. Martinez reached on a four-pitch walk by Jared Padgett who was immediately lifted. Oral Roberts scored the final run on an RBI single by pinch hitter Brent Williams in the eighth. Martinez scored again and he reached on a hit by pitch. Cohen was glad to the see the pitching fare better than Tuesday night, but the four walks and hit by pitch were not timely for his team.

MSU rarely struck out when runners were on, but hit into three double plays. The biggest came in the eighth inning when pinch hitter Jake Mangum slid head first into first base to beat the pitcher covering for an infield single. Robson hit it right at the first baseman who started a 3-6-3 double play to end the threat.

Cohen felt like his team was pressing offensively after what happened Tuesday night.

“I think our kids were really superly, overly aggressive and you just can’t do that, especially against breaking ball guys,” Cohen said. “You have to relax, you have to evaluate the pitch and you have to think every pitch is going to be a strike. Good hitters can stop their swing when they evaluate breaking balls that are going to be down.”

The two midweek losses come after MSU swept Oregon in a three-game series. The Bulldogs looked good both offensively and on the mound, but the good play didn’t carry over.

Robson believes the two losses are anomalies with the 16 runs allowed by the pitching staff Tuesday and the one run scored by the offense Wednesday.

“It’s tough losses in the middle of the week against teams we know we can beat,” Robson said. “At the same time, it’s not really fazing. We’re moving on and learning from our mistakes.”

Entering, the Bulldogs had struck 84 times in 17 games.

“We didn’t have very good strike zone discipline at the plate,” Cohen said. “As good as we’ve been for the last five games, this is probably the game where we did not do as good of job as that.”

Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait

Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.