TALLAHASSEE – Mississippi State baseball handled business in the opening round of the Tallahassee regional on Friday, taking down CAA champions Northeastern 11-2 thanks to a flurry of early runs and a steady showing from the bullpen.
Wins are never a given against mid-majors in the postseason, as many top seeds found out on Friday, but the Bulldogs (35-21) handled business well to end the Huskies’ 27-game winning streak and set up a battle with hosts Florida State on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The game started 95 minutes later than originally scheduled because of a lightning delay in Florida State’s 6-2 win over Bethune-Cookman. The late start didn’t have much of an impact on the Diamond Dawgs, and they jumped on Huskies ace Will Jones early to hand him his first loss of the season.
The Bulldogs came to life on offense in the second and third innings, answering an early run from Northeastern (48-10) with three runs. Joe Powell and Gatlin Sanders broke through with RBI hits, and though the Huskies got another run back, the Bulldogs broke the gam open in the following inning. Hunter Hines scored on a groundout, and Bryce Chance followed with a two-out RBI double. He wouldn’t have to wait long to get home as Powell followed up with a two-run shot to deep center to make it a 7-2 ballgame in a flash.
Huskies reliever Jack Bowery did well to come in and slow the game down, but the Bulldog bullpen was equal to it. Starter Ben Davis put up three straight zeroes before freshman Ryan McPherson came in and did the same. The righty put a difficult SEC Tournament start behind him with four shutout innings and three strikeouts in the ninth to close out the win. RBI hits from Sanders and Powell, as well as a two-run home run from Noah Sullivan added to the lead in the final innings and put the game out of reach.
There were some eyebrows raised at the starter announcement on Thursday, but Parker’s decision paid off with his regular weekend starters available for the rest of the weekend after the first game. The only real blemish for MSU was the departure of Sawyer Reeves after suffering an apparent injury early in the game. Freshman Lukas Buckner came in to replace him, recording a hit as well as a couple of nice plays at shortstop.
The Bulldogs avoided a short turnaround for the elimination bracket, with Northeastern and Bethune-Cookman playing at 11 a.m. on Saturday. MSU will face off with the Seminoles for the chance to set up a win-and-in game on Sunday.
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