STARKVILLE – Mississippi State baseball picked up a dominant ranked win at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday, battering No. 11 Southern Miss 12-0.
The Diamond Dawgs, now 21-4 on the season, avenged their 7-6 loss earlier this month in Hattiesburg, setting the tone for a week of in-state action with No. 18 Ole Miss waiting for a weekend series in Oxford.
The Bulldogs got two good innings out of starter Chris Billingsley Jr., who recorded a pair of strikeouts and allowed just two hits while making quick work of seven batters faced. He was followed by freshman Jack Bauer, making his first appearance since the win over Virginia Tech in Arlington. He got his first batter down swinging before forcing back-to-back flyouts.
Bauer’s speed was on display, as was better control than in his earlier outings. He hit a top speed of 100 mph on a called strike one on his second batter faced.
Meanwhile, on offense, MSU’s batting order was busy putting Southern Miss to the sword. Three runs in the first inning, one in the second and five in the third. Freshman right fielder Jacob Parker hit a three-run bomb, followed shortly by a two-run bomb by center fielder Aidan Teel, as the Bulldogs took a commanding 9-0 lead into the middle innings.
The first sign of trouble from the visitors came in the fourth innings as a hit batter and a walk put two aboard with just one out, but reliever Jack Gleason got himself out of the hole with back-to-back strikeouts. An RBI single from Ryder Woodson in the home half made it a 10-0 advantage, and Reed Stallman got two more home in the bottom of the fifth.
The offensive onslaught made it 12 straight innings of baseball where the Bulldog bats scored at least one run. They scored in each of the seven innings in a 17-7 Game Three blowout against Vanderbilt on Sunday and kept plugging away against the Golden Eagles.
Freshman Maddox Miller, a Hattiesburg native, came in to try to end the game early in the seventh inning. He had two strikeouts chalked off due to passed balls in his homecoming against the Golden Eagles, but put on a strong display in his new home to wrap up a 12-0 win for the Bulldogs. He saw a couple of drives into the outfield and loaded up the bases, but recorded three punchouts to close out the night.
MSU is back in action for Game One at Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
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