Bulldogs Bash Alabama State Thanks To Big First Inning

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Miss. St. Athletics) – Mississippi State pounded out a season-high 23 hits to defeat Alabama State 15-4 in midweek action Wednesday night at Riverwalk Stadium.

“We had a good night offensively,” MSU head coach Gary Henderson said. “Putting a crooked number up early always relaxes the team. We had a lot of solid contact tonight. Just as important as getting all of the hits is the fact that we had some really good at-bats.”

Jake Mangum, Luke Alexander, Hunter Stovall and Dustin Skelton each had three hits to lead the Bulldogs.

MSU (18-16) built a comfortable lead early, scoring seven times in the first inning. The highlight of that frame being Jordan Westburg’s first home run with the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs would then add two runs in the third inning, one run in the fourth inning and two runs in the sixth inning to build a 12-0 lead.

Alabama State (17-15) scored four times in the seventh inning, before MSU came right back with three runs in the eighth inning.

For the Bulldogs, Tanner Allen, Westburg, Tanner Poole and Jordan Anderson added two hits apiece. Alexander had four RBIs, while Westburg had three and Skelton had two.

An RBI-double by Alexander got the Bulldogs going in the right direction. Stovall followed with an RBI-single. After an error scored the game’s third run, Westburg hit a two-run home run to left center.

A two-run single by Alexander capped the big inning.

Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Anderson and Alexander scored the two third-inning runs.

Westburg had a sacrifice-fly in the fourth inning. In the sixth inning, Tanner Poole and Skelton had RBI-singles.

In the eighth inning, Skelton had an RBI-double, Rowdey Jordan had a sacrifice-fly and Allen had an RBI-single.

Denver McQuary pitched five innings of shutout baseball to pick up the win. McQuary had five hits, with four strikeouts and two walks. Riley Self, Cole Marsh and Keegan James also pitched for the Bulldogs.

State will return to Southeastern Conference play with a three-game series at No. 21 Auburn. The action begins with a nationally-televised tilt on Friday at 7:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.