Logan Tanner held the bat in his left hand as he started down the first-base line, staring at the baseball in flight.
The Mississippi State catcher watched his second-inning fly ball sail up and out of Tulane’s Turchin Stadium, landing beyond the wall in left center field for a key grand slam. A day after scoring 19 runs in a rout of the Green Wave on Friday, the Bulldogs had a 7-0 lead Saturday by the time Tanner crossed home plate.
That was the high point.
In the bottom of the 10th inning of a game that never should have gotten that far, Tanner watched a far different home run from behind the plate as an epic MSU meltdown reached its resolution. Tulane’s Ethan Groff slammed a walk-off homer off the scoreboard in left field, handing the Green Wave (9-2) an improbable 11-10 win over the ninth-ranked Bulldogs (6-5).
In less than three hours, so much had changed.
It took a perfect storm for Mississippi State to blow the 10-2 lead it held by the top of the fourth Saturday, but the Bulldogs managed to make it rain all over the Big Easy by the time a prolific Tulane comeback ended in a dogpile of black jerseys at home plate. Poor bullpen management, ineffective pitching and inconsistent offense kept MSU from what looked like a sure series win.
Instead, the Bulldogs will have to pick up the pieces in the rubber match at 1 p.m. Sunday, hoping to win a series for just the second time this season.
It shouldn’t have come to that after State’s reshaped lineup jumped on Tulane pitching for the second time in as many days. The Bulldogs pounded former Mississippi State hurler Dylan Carmouche to the tune of nine hits and 10 runs in four innings, remaining in the offensive groove they found in Friday night’s 19-2 victory.
Tanner and Kamren James each drove in runs with singles. RJ Yeager, Brad Cumbest and Tanner each had RBI doubles. Factor in Tanner’s biggest hit during his 6-RBI night, and it should have been enough.
But Mississippi State managed only four hits the rest of the way as its pitching began to crumble. The Bulldogs were held scoreless by Tulane reliever Grant Siegel for five innings and left the bases loaded in the 10th against Zach DeVito.
The Green Wave didn’t miss those kinds of opportunities.
Pinch-hitter Brady Marget launched a grand slam off freshman Jack Walker in the seventh inning, cutting the lead to two runs. Walker — so strong Tuesday against Grambling State — was tagged by Tulane for five runs without recording an out, a reminder the two Louisiana schools’ offenses aren’t created equal.
Brooks Auger put out the fire in the seventh, and Stone Simmons pitched a 1-2-3 eighth on just 10 pitches. But Simmons — Mississippi State’s most effective reliever so far this season — was removed for Parker Stinnett to begin the ninth inning, a questionable decision that only got worse.
With one out, Stinnett walked two batters. Mikey Tepper, replacing him, plunked the next. And Tulane’s Simon Baumgardt brought home two runs with a sacrifice fly, tying the game at 10-10.
The Green Wave sent a second runner to the plate when Drew McGowan made an awkward catch in right field and took his time getting the ball back into the infield. The relay throw got away from Tanner at the plate, and Gavin Schulz scored to complete the comeback.
Groff made Mississippi State pay for a missed chance in extra innings when Brad Cumbest went down swinging on a high fastball with the bases loaded in the top of the 10th. The Tulane outfielder took an 0-1 pitch from Tepper out to left, ringing it off the scoreboard.
It was the final straw in an inexcusable loss for the Bulldogs, who turned a breakout game into a total breakdown in the matter of a few short innings.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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