Big 5th Inning Lifts Vanderbilt Over Mississippi State

Photo Credit: Kelly Donoho/Mississippi State Athletics

OMAHA, Neb. (Miss. St. Athletics) – The road less traveled will be the path the No. 5 Mississippi State baseball program will need to take if it is to come out of bracket two at the 2019 College World Series after a 6-3 loss to No. 2 Vanderbilt on Wednesday (June 19) afternoon at TD Ameritrade Park.

Mississippi State (52-14) fell behind for the fourth-straight game and sixth time in seven postseason games as Stephen Scott gave Vanderbilt (56-11) the early lead with a solo home run in the second inning. The Commodores added five runs in the fifth inning to make it a 6-0 lead, before the Diamond Dawgs scored one in the sixth and two in the seventh to trim the lead to 6-3.

Senior Peyton Plumlee (7-5) got the start on the mound and allowed three runs on six hits in the taking the loss. He struck out five, walked one and hit one batter in 4 1/3 innings of work. Five MSU relievers combined to allow three runs on three hits with five walks, including 3 2/3 innings of scoreless work for redshirt-junior Keegan James. James struck out three, walked two and allowed one hit.

Seniors Marshall Gilbert and Jake Mangum each chipped in two hits and scored a run, with Gilbert hitting his sixth home run of the season. Magnum’s two hits moved him into a tie for MSU’s single-season hits record at 107. His national-leading 107 hits equal the total of Adam Frazier during the 2013 season. Sophomore Tanner Allen became the fourth Diamond Dawg this season to own a reached-base streak of 20-plus games, as he collected a double and was hit by a pitch to move his active streak to 20 games on base.

Mississippi State will now face Louisville in an elimination game. The Diamond Dawgs and Cardinals will throw the first pitch at 7 p.m. and the game will air on. ESPN2 and the Mississippi State Radio Network.