Mississippi State had once led Arkansas by six runs Sunday, but the Razorbacks had appeared to trim the deficit to two in the third inning when Kennedy Miller hit a two-run home run over the wall in left field.
The umpires, though, reviewed the play to see whether Nia Carter, the runner on first, had left the base before Bulldogs pitcher Aspen Wesley released the ball. They determined that Carter had in fact left early, so Miller returned to the plate with the home run negated and Carter was out. MSU still led by four, and the Bulldogs went on to plate nine runs in the fourth and take the series with a 15-7 victory.
“I liked the way we responded,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “We tried to be a little bit more confident in our game, trying to be more aggressive, which is something our offense does. We know (Arkansas) is a great hitting team, and they were going to score no matter what the score was. It was just kind of staying within ourselves and doing what we do in our normal approach. I thought we did a really good job of answering back, especially early on.”
The No. 20 Bulldogs (24-7, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) had to play from behind for much of Friday’s series opener, which started out as a pitchers’ duel between Wesley and No. 18 Arkansas’ Morgan Leinstock. Hannah Gammill, though, gave the Razorbacks the lead in the fourth with a three-run homer. MSU drew closer with single runs in the fifth and sixth, then took the lead in the seventh on Madisyn Kennedy’s three-run double.
Kennedy later scored on a single by freshman Ella Wesolowski before Wesley closed the door in the bottom of the seventh to give the Bulldogs a 6-3 win.
“Aspen really held her composure and bounced right back,” Ricketts said. “She had one tough inning, but everyone had all the confidence in her. I thought she was mixing well all night long and really did a great job of shutting them down after we started scoring some runs for her. She had lots of shutdown innings, giving us a chance to compete, a chance to get back in the dugout, and a great finish.”
Hannah Camenzind and Leinstock combined to shut out MSU 3-0 in Saturday’s game, allowing just two hits between them. The Bulldogs’ only scoring chance came in the fifth, when Paige Cook hit a leadoff single and Jessie Blaine’s double to right put runners at second and third with nobody out. But Leinstock then took over in the circle for Camenzind and retired the next three batters.
Sophomore Josey Marron pitched well for MSU, allowing three runs (two earned) over six innings, but struck out just one batter and received nothing in the way of run support. A solo homer in the first by Bri Ellis proved to be the only run Arkansas needed.
The Bulldogs’ bats rebounded in a big way Sunday, though, as Kennedy got the scoring started in the first inning with a two-run homer and slap hitter Sierra Sacco hit a three-run blast in the second, her first career home run, to make it a 6-0 game. Wesolowski hit a grand slam during MSU’s nine-run fourth, an inning that also included a two-run shot by freshman Salen Hawkins.
“The previous at-bats, I was getting a little bit in my head,” Wesolowski said. “I just went up there and did my thing. I just said trust myself and don’t go up there thinking about too much. I knew that it was for the team. It fired the team up, it fired me up. That’s our whole goal is to make sure the team is having good energy throughout the whole game.”
The Razorbacks (24-8, 3-3) battled back with three runs in the fourth and two in the fifth, but MSU still ended the game after five with the run rule. The Bulldogs return to Nusz Park for a three-game series starting Thursday against No. 10 Florida.
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