From Special Reports
BATON ROUGE, La. – Junior right-hander Austin Sexton stood tallest in a dynamic Southeastern Conference pitcher’s duel Saturday night.
Sexton (4-2) pitched 7 1/3 innings of five-hit baseball and the bullpen took it from there as No. 7 Mississippi State knocked off No. 5 LSU 2-1 at Alex Box Stadium to clinch its first series win at LSU since 2006. The Bulldogs (27-12-1, 10-7 SEC) beat the Tigers (26-13, 9-8) 12-8 Friday night
With 13 league games remaining, MSU is one game behind Texas A&M in the Western Division standings and three games behind South Carolina in the overall standings.
“Austin had such great movement on his breaking ball tonight,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “We knew if he could keep it in the strike zone, he would get a lot of quick outs. Both kids really competed their tails off out on there the mound (Saturday).
“You have to learn how to win the 10-9 games, but you also have to win the 2-1 games. We were able to do that tonight. Austin was fabulous and the bullpen was great behind him.”
Equally tough for LSU was right-hander Alex Lange. Lange (4-3) threw a complete game, with four hits and two runs (one earned) allowed. Lange struck out seven and walked one.
MSU took advantage of its limited scoring chances.
The Bulldogs got a first-inning home run for a second straight night as Jack Kruger hit a solo shot for a 1-0 lead. Things stayed that way until the sixth inning. In that inning, Jake Mangum reached on an error, Kruger singled and Nathaniel Lowe walked to load the bases.
Reid Humphreys hit a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead. A strikeout followed to snuff that threat as the Bulldogs stranded half of their four base runners in that frame.
LSU bunched a single, hit batsman and two ground ball outs for a run in the eighth inning. Sexton gave way to Daniel Brown who got back-to-back outs to end that threat. Brown was lifted in favor of Humphreys after a one-out double in the ninth inning.
Humphreys got a ground out and lineout to nail down his second save of the series and fifth of the season.
LSU outhit MSU 6-4 for the contest. Kruger was the lone multiple hitter for MSU, while Antoine Duplantis and Kramer Robertson each had two hits for LSU.
Lowe hit a grand slam and drove in six runs to help the Bulldogs win Friday night.
“Our kids just kept battling,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “They knew going in we were going to have score some runs in this game. A lot of lesser teams would have given up when you are in foreign territory and give up a grand slam.
“Dakota (Hudson) really gutted it out for us. He kept eating innings. Reid (Humphreys) was great. Our two-out hitting was great. We will play defense better than this in the future. However, we made some plays that we had to have.”
The Bulldogs built a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Mangum singled, Humphreys walked and Brent Rooker reached on the first of three LSU errors. Lowe followed with his third home run of the year – a line drive grand slam over the right field wall to start a three-hit night.
LSU pulled even with two runs in both the second and third innings off Hudson.
In the sixth, Lowe and Kruger started things with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Gridley, Hunter Stovall had a two-out, two-run double. Gavin Collins followed with an RBI-double to stretch the MSU lead to 7-4.
In the seventh inning, Kruger lined a sacrifice fly and Gridley continued the two-out hitting theme with a critical RBI-single for a 9-4 lead.
Hudson (5-3) then gave way to Ryan Rigby in the LSU seventh inning. In 6.1 innings of work, Hudson allowed 12 hits and seven runs (all earned).
Rigby was touched for a grand slam by LSU’s Antoine Duplantis to bring the Tigers back within 9-8. With the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning, Rigby then gave way to Humphreys, who retired all four batters he faced for his fourth save.
In the eighth inning, the Bulldogs plated three insurance scores on an RBI-single by Rooker and two-run double by Lowe.
MSU finished with 13 hits. Mangum and Rooker joined Lowe as multiple hitters, as each had two hits.
LSU also finished with 13 hits. Duplantis had two hits and five RBIs. Kramer Robertson, Chris Reid and Bryce Jordan each had two hits. Jared Poche’ (5-4) pitched six innings, while taking the loss.
The Bulldogs go for the sweep noon today (ESPN2).
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.