HOOVER – Mississippi State fell flat out of the starting gate in Hoover with an early exit at the SEC Tournament. The Bulldogs, 34-21, were shut out in a 9-0 loss to Texas A&M at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on Wednesday.
The Aggies went with their ace, Ryan Prager, and didn’t put a foot or glove wrong defensively.
“We’re just disappointed,” MSU interim head coach Justin Parker said after the loss. “It feels like we’ve played playoff baseball now for about a month, and to come out early and not make enough pitches and plays in the second and third inning put ourselves in that deficit. It felt like it took those two innings to get (Prager) settled, and I don’t know if he missed a spot after the second inning.”
Prager allowed just two hits through the first five innings, recording six strikeouts and allowing just two walks before he was relieved in the sixth inning with the Aggies up big.
Freshman righty Ryan McPherson got the start on the mound for the Bulldogs, striking out the top of the Aggie order, but old, bad habits popped up for State as things devolved defensively at the top of the second inning. A ball dropped by Reed Stallman on the warning track, a whiff on a groundball at second by Gatlin Sanders and a drop on a tough diving catch by Gehrig Frei turned three potential outs into baserunners.
Jace LaViolette’s grand slam was the main consequence in what would become a six-run inning for the Aggies. Two more runs in the next inning made it an 8-0 deficit before the Bulldogs had even picked up a second hit.
The slow start defensively was compounded by strong pitching from the Aggies. Texas A&M, now 29-25, came into the tournament likely needing a win to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and that urgency came through in the team’s approach. They were aggressive at the plate and put the ball in play, but more importantly, committed no errors in the field.
“We’ve been playing great for a month,” Parker said. “We’ve been unbelievable early in games offensively, we’ve scored in the first inning for what seems like two or three weeks straight. I really did think once they got a six-run lead that Prager did a nice job of settling in.”
The Bulldogs looked like they may have had something going in the sixth with back-to-back hits from Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan, but came away empty-handed with a strikeout and two flyouts. That was the closest they came to scoring.
It wasn’t the start or end that the Bulldogs wanted in Hoover, but there is still a sense of confidence with the rest of the postseason left to play.
“We still have our best ball ahead of us,” Sullivan said confidently. “It’s frustrating because we played really good the past three weeks to a month, but we’ll get back to it once we get back.”
MSU will learn its NCAA Tournament destination on Monday.
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