FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Amid the chaos at Baum-Walker Stadium, Parker Stinnett headed for the dugout.
The song “Wild Thing” played on the loudspeakers. Arkansas fans, per tradition, “called the hogs.” Stinnett just kept walking, straight toward his silent teammates, ignoring the crowd.
Not long into Saturday’s game, Stinnett’s briefly promising night had come to a premature end.
The Mississippi State right-hander had worked an easy 1-2-3 first inning, even sending Razorbacks first baseman Peyton Stovall to a knee on a nasty breaking ball for strike three.
Then the wheels came off for Stinnett and for the Bulldogs in a 12-5 loss on Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Stinnett walked three straight batters, hit two more and allowed a two-run single by the time he departed with two out in the second inning Saturday. Reliever Cam Tullar fared no better, giving up six runs in the next two innings.
Once again, Arkansas had Mississippi State’s number.
The Razorbacks (21-4, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) beat the Bulldogs (16-12, 3-5 SEC) for the eighth consecutive time, clinching the series and earning a chance to sweep it at 2 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re not competing on the rubber right now,” Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis said. “You ain’t gonna win here. You’re not going to win here if you don’t make them earn it.”
MSU was soundly defeated in a game that bore a lot of resemblance to Friday’s series opener, in which the Bulldogs fell behind early and did little to catch up.
A 1-0 lead produced on a sacrifice fly by Kellum Clark in the first inning was long forgotten by the time Lemonis yanked Stinnett from the ballgame with the visitors facing a 4-1 deficit that only got larger.
Tullar gave up three home runs between the third and fourth innings, allowing Arkansas to pull away quickly. Brady Slavens hit a two-run shot in the third before Chris Lanzilli and Robert Moore touched Tullar for solo homers in the fourth.
The left-handed reliever also gave up a two-run double to Cayden Wallace in the third, the Razorbacks’ second consecutive four-run inning. Wallace hit a two-run single off Stinnett in the second and finished with four RBIs.
Tullar, who raised his ERA from 9.28 to 12.41 after Saturday’s performance, is part of a Mississippi State bullpen that has struggled mightily throughout the season. Only three Bulldogs relievers have ERAs under 5: Brooks Auger (1.46), Pico Kohn (3.50) and Brandon Smith (4.91). Eight, meanwhile, have ERAs of 6 or higher. The Bulldogs lost their best reliever, Stone Simmons, to a torn UCL on March 4.
Mississippi State also lost ace starter Landon Sims, whose absence has been felt on the Bulldogs’ starting rotation ever since. Stinnett’s clunker followed a seven-run, four-inning outing by Preston Johnson on Friday night.
After a lineout to start the second inning, Stinnett walked the bases loaded before Jalen Battles brought home a run on a forceout at second. Stinnett plunked Zack Gregory to reload the bases, and Wallace beat the shift on the left side to score two.
Lemonis lifted Stinnett after the pitcher spiked a breaking ball and couldn’t get the tag down in time to nab Gregory at home on the wild pitch.
Mississippi State got a two-run home run from Luke Hancock in the fifth, and errors in the seventh and eighth allowed two more runs to score.
“I liked the way our position players played tonight,” Lemonis said. “We may need some more hits, but they’re competing, man. They’re invested all the way through the ninth inning. We’ve got to be more competitive on the rubber.”
Still, Arkansas kept hitting.
Gregory took KC Hunt deep for a solo homer in the fifth, and Slavens added an RBI double off Jack Walker in the sixth. The Razorbacks’ lead never dipped below seven runs from the fourth inning on.
It was a familiar tune for a Mississippi State team swept by Arkansas in the previous two series. The Hogs outscored the Bulldogs 27-10 in a 2019 sweep in Fayetteville and cemented their No. 1 ranking in a key series early in SEC play last year in Starkville.
Mississippi State will send Cade Smith (4-1, 2.91 ERA) to the mound Sunday to stave off a third straight sweep by the Razorbacks.
“We’re just trying to fight our way out of a hole,” center fielder Matt Corder said. “Once we all just figure out how to play together and play as a team, I think we’ll be alright.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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