AUBURN, Ala. — The No. 3 Mississippi State baseball team used strong pitching from Konnor Pilkington, Ryan Rigby, and Reid Humphreys and hit three home runs Sunday to beat Auburn 10-3 at Plainsman Park.
The victory helped MSU (37-14-1) complete a three-game sweep of the Southeastern Conference series. The win was the Bulldogs’ seventh straight in the league and pushed them to 18-9 in the SEC, while Auburn fell to 22-30 and 8-19.
South Carolina’s 10-7 victory against Texas A&M on Sunday helped MSU move into a first-place tie with the Aggies with one regular-season series remaining. MSU will play host to Arkansas this weekend, while Texas A&M will play host to Ole Miss.
Ole Miss and LSU are one game back at 17-10 in the Western Division standings. Alabama is three games back at 15-12.
MSU has won eight of nine conference series, including all five road series.
“We have a lot of goals we have not accomplished yet,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “Our kids feel it. They are competing very well. They want to compete for an SEC championship. The key on Sunday is throwing strikes. We were not as good there as we wanted to be but we were good enough.
“The biggest thing is scoring first, especially if you have already won the first two. The other team can get down in that situation. Throwing strikes and scoring early were really big for our team.”
After sweeping Missouri last weekend at Dudy Noble Field, MSU made it back-to-back series sweeps for the first time since defeating Ole Miss and Arkansas on consecutive weekends in 2003.
The Bulldogs also made it back-to-back sweeps on the Auburn campus. MSU has won seven of its last nine on The Plains.
MSU had 13 hits. It was the first time in a conference series this season the Bulldogs had 10 or more hits in all three games. For the weekend, MSU scored 30 runs on 45 hits and had a .372 batting average.
Jack Kruger and Nathaniel Lowe had three hits. Gavin Collins had two hits. Lowe had three RBIs, while Kruger and Humphreys had two RBIs. Kruger has nine three-hits games, while Lowe has had three or more hits seven times. It was Lowe’s seventh game with three or more RBIs.
Kruger, Lowe, and Humphreys hit home runs. Kruger has homered seven times, while Lowe and Humphreys have hit five. The Bulldogs hit seven home runs in the series and finished with 21 extra-base hits. It marks the first time MSU hit seven home runs in a series since earning seven at Auburn in 2010.
The Bulldogs built a 2-0 lead on a double by Lowe in the third inning and a home run by Humphreys in the fourth. Kruger homered to lead off the fifth. After a single by Lowe and double by Collins, Brent Rooker hit a sacrifice fly.
MSU then put the game away with three runs in the seventh with one hit. The Bulldogs capitalized on three walks and an error.
Lowe had a two-run home run in the eighth and Kruger lined an RBI single in the ninth.
Pilkington (3-1) allowed only three hits in a career-best six innings. He struck out four and walked two. Rigby surrendered two hits and a run in the seventh and eighth. Humphreys allowed two runs in the ninth.
MSU will play host to Arkansas this weekend at Dudy Noble Field. Game 1 of the three-game series will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday (SEC Network +).
n Southern Mississippi 2, Louisiana Tech 0: At Hattiesburg, Four pitchers combined on the shutout to help the Golden Eagles beat the Techsters on Sunday and win their Conference USA series at Pete Taylor Park.
Coupled with Rice’s 10-3 loss to Florida Atlantic, which completed the suspended game from Saturday, and the final game of the series canceled due to rain later in the day at 4-4 in the middle of the fifth, Southern Miss leads the C-USA standings by a half game against Rice entering the final week of the regular season. Marshall is one game behind Southern Miss, while Florida Atlantic is one-and-a-half games back.
Southern Miss (36-15, 20-7 C-USA) will travel to Miami this weekend for a three-game series against Florida International.
On Sunday, freshman Walker Powell, in his second career start, went a season-high 5 1/3 innings to improve to 4-2. He allowed three hits and one walk and struck out a season-best four.
Freshman Stevie Powers got two outs to end the sixth. Junior Hayden Roberts got a groundout to open the seventh before walking a pair. Freshman Nick Sandlin got two fly ball outs in to end the seventh and worked around two runners on in the ninth to capture his 10th save.
“Real proud of the way those young men went out and competed on a tough conference weekend, particularly with everything that was riding on the line today,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “I thought Walker handled the stage very well, as did Stevie Powers and Sandlin coming in and getting his 10th save.”
Southern Miss registered its fourth shutout of the season and held Louisiana Tech (34-16, 16-11) scoreless in the final 16 innings of the series.
Dylan Burdeaux and Tim Lynch each led the Golden Eagles with two hits each as the Golden Eagles scored runs in the second and third innings.
Southern Miss will play host to Louisiana-Monroe at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
n Alabama 7, Arkansas 4: At Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Crimson Tide rallied for four runs in the top of the ninth Sunday to sweep the Razorbacks.
The sweep was the Crimson Tide’s first three-game sweep in Fayetteville since 2000, and helped Alabama improve to 30-21 and 15-12 in the Southeastern Conference.
Arkansas used a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Alabama rallied thanks to a one-out single from Gene Wood and a single by Daniel Cucjen. One out later, Vance walked to load the bases and bring Georgie Salem to the plate. The senior singled up the middle to give the Crimson Tide a 5-4 lead. Salem and Vance advanced a base on the throw to put two in scoring position with two down. Chandler Taylor walked to load the bases. Will Haynie then delivered a two-run single to right-center field to account for the final margin.
Thomas Burrows (2-0) entered in the eighth and allowed the home run, but he earned the victory.
Starter Nick Eicholtz worked six innings of two-run baseball, allowing one earned run. The junior allowed three hits and three walks and struck out four.
Alabama will play Samford at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
Tennis
n No. 13 California 4, Ole Miss 0: At Berkeley, California, the Ole Miss men’s tennis team lost the doubles point for the second-straight day Sunday and then dropped five first sets in singles on their way to a loss to No. 13 California in the second round of the NCAA Championships at Hellman Tennis Complex.
Cal got off to a fast start at No. 3 doubles and took the match 6-2. Ole Miss’ Gustav Hansson and Stefan Lindmark defeated Andre Goransson and Oskar Wikberg 6-3 to even the doubles. Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton battled the ninth-ranked duo of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat at No. 1 doubles, but lost 6-4.
In singles, Lindmark had beaten his singles opponent, Goransson, but this time the Golden Bear won 6-3, 6-1 on court two to give Cal a 2-0 lead.
Cal increased its lead to 3-0 when Bergevi took out Fallert 6-2, 6-3 on court four and then clinched when J.T. Nishimura closed out sophomore Zvonimir Babic 6-4, 6-2 at No. 6 singles.
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