STARKVILLE — Mississippi State’s pitching has been defying the odds for months now, performing at a rate ranking among the top half in the nation with, thanks to injury, a staff half of the size of most others.
Saturday afternoon, the numbers regressed to the mean a bit.
One of No. 8 MSU’s worst pitching performances of the season came in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against No. 5 Auburn as the Bulldogs (30-16, 14-7) allowed 14 hits and eight walks while hitting five batters and throwing six wild pitches in a 17-8 loss to the Tigers (32-14, 14-7). Auburn took the series with a 5-3 win in the nightcap.
The loss snapped a five-series win streak by the Bulldogs. The teams are now tied for the SEC Western Division lead.
In Saturday’s opener, Auburn had at least one baserunner in all but one inning and scored in six innings. The Tigers took control of the game in the seven-run top of the fourth, highlighted by Dylan Ingram’s grand slam. MSU starter Cole Gordon led off the frame with two singles before throwing a wild pitch that scored a run. He then walked a batter and hit another with a pitch to load the bases before exiting the game.
Peyton Plumlee took his place and allowed an RBI single and a sacrifice fly before walking a batter to load the bases for the third time; Ingram’s grand slam emptied them.
MSU responded in the next inning, bringing the deficit down to two runs on first baseman Brent Rooker’s RBI double followed by left fielder Cody Brown’s three-run home run. MSU maintained that two-run deficit until the eighth inning when a combination of Jacob Barton and Andrew Mahoney allowed five runs; Mahoney and Brant Blaylock combined to allow two more in the ninth.
Brown and Rooker were the only Bulldogs to tally multiple hits in the game, Rooker driving in two runs and Brown driving in four. For the pitch staff’s struggles, the offense retaliated its fair share with 11 hits and three home runs courtesy of Brown, Rooker and third baseman Harrison Bragg.
Bragg was in the lineup as second baseman Hunter Stovall was out with a hand injury suffered in MSU’s series debut on Friday. MSU’s regular third baseman, Luke Alexander, moved to second base, opening the spot for Bragg.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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