STARKVILLE — Nothing has come easy for the Mississippi State baseball pitchers this weekend.
Texas A&M’s offensive approach has been simple: hit the ball hard all over the park. The Aggies have done that in the first two games.
The No. 2 Bulldogs allowed 13 hits Friday night in a 10-3 loss and 17 hits Saturday in a 10-6 loss to the Aggies to lose their first Southeastern Conference series.
“They just hit ground balls and line drives,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “When you start adding up every single ground ball, you’re going to have a chance for balls to fall in, even balls that aren’t hit very well. They just don’t strike out a ton.”
Bulldog ace Dakota Hudson (4-3) threw seven innings and allowed four runs (all earned) on 10 hits Friday. He did strike out eight, but was hit hard to take his second-straight loss.
The junior right-hander had been almost untouchable against Vanderbilt, Georgia and Ole Miss with three runs allowed (none earned) on 16 hits. But he allowed six runs (five earned) on four hits against Florida last week in an 8-2 loss.
Boomer White, who has five hits and three RBIs, had a RBI single and Hunter Melton, who has six hits and four RBIs, hit a two-run home run off Hudson.
“I just felt like for me it came down to a few unexecuted pitches that a good hitting team like Texas A&M got a hold of,” Hudson said. “They were kind of sitting certain pitches in certain counts which is a good strategy for a good hitting team that can really hit pretty much anything.”
The Melton home run gave the Aggies (28-7, 9-5 SEC) a lead, but the Bulldogs (24-11-1, 8-6) cut the lead to 4-3 in the eighth inning on a Brent Rooker RBI single.
Texas A&M answered with six runs in the ninth, including a grand slam by Nick Banks, who has five hits and four RBIs, off Vance Tatum.
Saturday starter Austin Sexton (3-2) lasted three innings and allowed five runs (all earned) on nine hits. Cohen said the junior right-hander injured his hamstring when he tired to cover first on a ball hit to Nathaniel Lowe in the third inning. Cohen said he is unsure how serious the injury is.
The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead on a Reid Humphreys two-run home run to left field in the first, but the Aggies scored five runs in the third inning thanks to an error, an infield single that should have led to an out and a poorly played pop up in foul territory to take a 5-2 lead.
“The third inning was obviously disastrous for us,” Cohen said. “We didn’t deal with things very well. When those kinds of things are happening to you in one inning, you absolutely know it’s not going to be your day.”
MSU freshman left-hander Kale Breaux came in relief of Sexton in the fourth, but didn’t record an out and gave up two runs on two hits as Texas A&M increased the lead to 7-2. Junior left-hander Daniel Brown relieved Breaux and kept the Bulldogs in the game.
Brown retired the three batters he faced in the fourth to strand two. He allowed the Bulldogs to cut the lead to 7-6 with a run in the fourth and three runs in the sixth.
Brown retired the first two batters he faced in the eighth, but Banks had a single and White walked.
“I thought I got a fastball into Banks pretty good but he did a good piece of hitting to get it back up the middle,” Brown said. “I tried to get the three-hole (White) to chase a little and he didn’t. He ended up working a good at bat.”
Cohen went to junior right-hander Zac Houston because he thought it was a good matchup with Melton, but Melton drove home a run with a single and Ryne Birk brought home two with a single.
Brown threw 4 2/3 innings and allowed two runs (both earned) on three hits. He walked one and struck out six.
“Daniel was outstanding,” Cohen said. “He’s trying to get back and pitch on the weekends for us after not pitching as well as he’s wanted to. I’m really proud of him. He came out and really neutralized them through the middle part of the baseball game.”
Bulldog freshman left-hander Konnor Pilkington (1-0, 0.89 ERA) will get his second-straight SEC start 1:30 p.m. today in the series finale. The Aggies will go with senior right-hander Kyle Simonds (6-1, 3.35).
Coming into the weekend, the Aggies led the league with a .329 batting average, thanks in large part to three seniors and six juniors in the lineup.
“I don’t know if there’s a lineup in our league that doesn’t have any freshmen or any sophomores,” Cohen said. “Those kids have experienced a lot of success, but they’ve also experienced a lot of failure. The combination of those two really allow a group of positional players to mature and play at that level.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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