HOOVER, Ala. — As the clock neared 3 a.m. at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, faint chants of “Let’s go Dogs” from a thinned crowd filled the air.
The cheers grew progressively louder when junior Gunner Halter stepped to the plate with runners on first and second in the bottom of the 17th inning.
Thoughts of his failed bunt attempts in the 16th weighed heavy in the back of his mind after Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis chewed him out over the miscue.
“He missed the bunt and I got on him a little bit for that, and then he walked around like somebody took his dog,” Lemonis said after the game.
With a flick of the wrist, Halter redeemed all wrongs — roping a hanging curveball from LSU reliever Ma’Khail Hilliard to score sophomore Justin Foscue from second for a walk-off, 6-5 victory in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
“I was probably the smallest dude in there,” Halter said of the ensuing dogpile on the edge of the outfield grass between first and second base. “I was bouncing around pretty good.”
In a game that began on Wednesday and concluded in the early hours of Thursday morning, the 6 hour, 43 minute affair offered an inordinate amount of chaos to open MSU’s postseason run.
First it was a ground-rule double from senior Jake Mangum in the 12th that held classmate Marshall Gilbert at third base when the ball bounced over the wall in center field on what surely would have been the game-winning hit.
A booted grounder by LSU (35-23, 17-13 SEC) second baseman Brandt Broussard scored Rowdey Jordan from third to tie the game at five with two outs in the bottom of the 16th to keep MSU (46-11, 20-10) alive.
Finally, it was Halter who delivered the dramatics in the longest game in SEC tournament history.
The MSU dugout did its part in keeping things light while the seemingly endless contest sojourned on. Freshman Brad Cumbest tried to coax a run across with a rally outfit of sunglasses, a waving towel and a backward ball cap.
Senior Elijah MacNamee took the rally suit one step further. With his bill facing backward, his sunglasses upside down and small green Gatorade cups hanging from his ears, the injured right fielder attempted to bring the Bulldogs a semblance of luck with his absurd get-up.
“We stayed loose, but at the same time it’s kind of frustrating,” Halter said of the mood in the dugout. “Had runners in scoring position a lot, just nobody could get the job done. So we’re doing anything we can to get some runs on the board.”
Hours prior to the extra-inning madness, MSU opened the scoring with a two-run first inning. Sophomore Tanner Allen belted a double to right field, scoring Mangum from second and moving sophomore Jordan Westburg to third.
Junior Dustin Skelton then plated Westburg with a sacrifice fly to put the Bulldogs ahead, 2-0.
MSU doubled its lead with runs in both the third and fourth innings. Westburg first notched an RBI single to center field in the third before freshman Luke Hancock was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead the following frame.
LSU responded with two runs in the fifth when redshirt junior reliever Trysten Barlow walked in a runner he inherited from freshman starter Brandon Smith with the bases loaded. Cade Beloso plated another with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Broussard from third.
The Tigers evened things up in the eighth inning when Giovanni DiGiacomo smoked a two-run home run over the right field wall to send the game to extras.
DiGiacomo struck again in the top of the 16th inning. A ball, a foul tip, and another ball gave him a 2-1 count against redshirt junior pitcher Keegan James with runners at second and third. DiGiacomo then skied a sacrifice fly to left field to give LSU a 5-4 lead — though Broussard’s error afforded MSU a second lease on life in the bottom half.
“I give our guys a lot of credit for competing, making plays, making pitches when we weren’t real offensive,” Lemonis said.
MSU now advances to take on No. 1 seed Vanderbilt today. Redshirt junior Ethan Small (8-1, 1.84 ERA) will take the mound against the Commodores’ Drake Fellows (10-0, 4.34 ERA). First pitch against Vanderbilt is scheduled for 8 p.m.
The winner will advance to Saturday’s semifinal and the loser will take on either LSU or Auburn in an elimination game Friday.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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