KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Mississippi State baseball team failed to cash in on early scoring opportunities and it cost them dearly in Southeastern Conference baseball action Thursday night.
Tennessee erased an early deficit and pulled away to a 5-2 win in the opening game of a three-game weekend series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
MSU dropped to 24-28 and 8-20 in league play with a fourth-straight loss. Tennessee improved to 22-25 and 9-18. With Georgia’s 10-1 win over Arkansas Thursday night, MSU was eliminated from SEC tournament consideration.
“Tonight was a game of psychology,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “If you can’t score from third when a ground ball is hit to the right side, if you can’t advance runners when they are in scoring position and if you walk people, you are going to have a hard time winning.
“In all of the winnable moments of this game, we failed miserably.”
In the MSU first inning, Gavin Collins drew a walk and Lucas Reynolds hit a double. From there, the Bulldogs only managed one run on a ground ball out by Wes Rea.
MSU received five walks in the first three innings but only scored on one of them.
MSU had four hits — a hit apiece by Collins, Reynolds, Vickerson, and Matthew Britton.
Tennessee had nine hits. Rogers, Senzel and Christin Stewart had two hits apiece for the Volunteers.
Laster (4-4) lasted 3 1/3 innings, with six hits and four runs (three earned) allowed. Laster struck out two and walked none. Ross Mitchell allowed three hits and one run (unearned) in 4 2/3 innings of relief.
n Texas A&M 4, Ole Miss 0: After a season high five-game winning streak, the Rebels lost Game 1 of the final regular-season series.
The pitcher’s duel between the Rebels’ Christian Trent and the Aggies’ Grayson Long went on for the first four innings before the Texas A&M (43-9, 18-9 SEC) scored a run in innings five through eight, while keeping Ole Miss (29-25, 14-14 SEC) off the scoreboard.
In Trent’s (7-6) final Friday night appearance at Swayze Field for the 2015 campaign, he pitched a total of 6.2 innings, striking out six Aggie batters and allowing three runs on six hits. Relief pitcher Jacob Waguespack entered the game during the sixth and ended the inning. Waguespack tossed 1.1 innings with two hits and one strikeout. Drake Robison went to the rubber for the ninth and retired all three batters he faced for a perfect inning.
Senior Austin Knight and sophomore J.B. Woodman each smacked doubles for the Rebels. Freshman Will Golsan, from New Hope, showed his patience at the plate, reaching base three times on walks.
Long (9-0) started for the Aggies and threw seven innings, holding the Rebels to two hits while striking out 12. Relief pitcher Andrew Vinson took the mound in the eighth finished tossing the final two frames. At the dish, Logan Taylor and Nick Banks recorded multi-hit games to pace Texas A&M.
n Vanderbilt 2, Alabama 1: the Crimson Tide fell to 25-29 and 11-17 in SEC play. The Crimson Tide had two hits, singles by Will Overstreet and Mikey White.
n Southern Mississippi 12, Middle Tennessee 4: Chase Scott capped a five-run fifth inning with a three-run home run and the Golden Eagles tacked on seven more runs in the ninth to defeat Middle Tennessee 12-4 here Thursday night in a Conference USA series opener at Reese Smith Jr. Field.
The Golden Eagles (33-16-1, 17-10 C-USA) captured their 11th-straight victory, which is tied for the fifth longest in school history and the longest current streak since Southern Miss won 12 consecutive contests under Scott Berry from April 23 to May 15, 2010.
Taylor Braley, Tim Lynch and Austin Roussel each had two hits to pace the Golden Eagles’ 11-hit attack.
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