Mississippi State’s bats, on fire for most of the year and the driving force behind the Bulldogs’ resurgent season, have stopped working at the worst possible time.
Following a run-rule victory over a top-5 Tennessee team in the series opener on Apr. 12, MSU has lost six of its last seven games, scoring a total of seven runs in those six defeats. The No. 18 Bulldogs managed just one run in a pair of losses at No. 14 Missouri on Saturday and Sunday and dropped their first Southeastern Conference road series of the year.
Tigers veteran Lauren Krings held MSU (30-16, 9-11 SEC) to just three hits in a 4-0 shutout Saturday night, none of them extra-base hits. Missouri (37-13, 10-10) effectively put the game away with two runs in the first inning off Aspen Wesley, taking advantage of sloppy Bulldog defense. With runners at first and second and one out, Abby Hay singled to left field and the ball got by Brylie St. Clair, allowing two runs to score and Hay to advance all the way to third.
MSU made three errors in the game, one of which helped lead to the final run of the game in the sixth. Chantice Phillips reached base when Riley Hull dropped a throw to first and later scored on a bloop double.
Sunday’s game was the same story, with Hay driving in a run in the first on a groundout before the Tigers added three more in the fourth against Josey Marron. Freshman left-hander Delainey Everett was strong in relief with two hitless innings, but again the Bulldogs could do nothing offensively until it was too little, too late in a 4-1 loss.
Sierra Sacco hit a one-out single in the sixth, Nadia Barbary walked and Madisyn Kennedy reached on an error to load the bases. MSU only pushed one run across, though, on an infield hit by Ella Wesolowski, before relief pitcher Marissa McCann got Paige Cook to ground out to escape further damage. The Bulldogs brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh after Sacco’s third hit of the game, but Barbary was called out on strikes to end the game.
The series concludes Monday night before MSU returns home to close out the regular season with a three-game set against Georgia.
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