Video: Diamond Dawgs Use Three Homers to Blast Past Southeast Missouri State

(Photo Courtesy: Kelly Price, MSU Athletics)

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) – Behind a pair of home runs from Brent Rooker, the fourth-ranked Mississippi State baseball team got its postseason off to a good start with a 9-5 victory against Southeast Missouri State at the Starkville Regional Friday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field.

Playing before a sun-drenched crowd of 9,378, the Bulldogs welcomed postseason baseball back to campus for the first time since 2013. MSU has now won 11 straight regional openers at home. Entering play with a No. 6 national seed, MSU won its first contest as a national seed.

With the victory, top-seeded MSU (42-16-1) will face either No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton (35-21) or No. 3 seed Louisiana Tech (40-18) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on the second day of the tournament. The Bulldogs can advance to a super regional with a win in that contest and another win in Sunday’s championship round. Saturday’s play will be available nationally on ESPN3.

“I really want to thank the crowd for coming out today,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “It was a work day for most, so to have this type of support was outstanding. It really meant a lot to the kids. We played well today. It’s obvious that Dakota (Hudson) did not have his best stuff, but we battled and came through.”

After a short stint from staff ace Hudson, the Bulldogs needed a lift on offense. It came in the form of Rooker, who hit a solo home run in the second inning and a game-tying three-run home run in the third.

The Bulldogs again tied things at 5-5 in the sixth inning on an RBI-single from Ryan Gridley and took the lead for good on a ground ball out hit by Hunter Stovall.

Daniel Brown (4-2) pitched the final 3.1 innings to earn the win. Brown allowed no hits and no runs, with four strikeouts and a walk. He entered in the sixth inning and got a strikeout to snuff a threat by the Redhawks.

Hudson drew the start but only lasted 3.1 innings. He allowed four hits and four runs (all earned), with two strikeouts and four walks. Ryan Rigby worked the Bulldogs out of a tight spot in the fourth inning and allowed three hits and a run (earned) over 11 batters before giving way to Brown in the sixth inning.

SEMO (39-20) built a 2-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI-single by Scott Mitchell and sacrifice fly by Brian Lees. After Rooker’s first blast, the Redhawks ran the lead to 4-1 an inning later on a double by Brandon Boggetto and sacrifice bunt by Dan Holst.

“We weren’t really uncomfortable being down like that because we had been down like that before,” Rooker said. “We just have a lot of confidence. We knew this was the kind of game that we were going to have to grind out. The (game-tying) home run was fun because it was a really big hit in the game.”

After grabbing a 7-5 lead in the sixth inning, the Bulldogs got a pair of critical insurance scores on a two-run inside-the-park home run by Jack Kruger in the eighth inning.

It was MSU’s fourth three-home run game this season.

The Bulldogs finished with 14 hits. Reid Humphreys had three hits, while Jake Mangum, Nathaniel Lowe, Kruger, Rooker and Gridley each had two hits.

“Up and down the lineup, we had some really good offensive days by several players,” Cohen said. “The wind was blowing out. We don’t have a lot of days like that, when the wind is helping us. We felt like we could have a right-handed hitter or two have a good day.”

Chris Osborne had two of the Redhawks’ seven hits. Joey Lucchesi (10-5) took the loss. The SEMO ace threw 5.1 innings, allowing 10 hits, with seven runs (five earned), with four strikeouts and no walks.