John Holland Hits Walk Off For MSU Baseball

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – John Holland’s RBI-single in the home half of the 10th inning lifted the No. 13 Mississippi State baseball team to a 6-5 win over Western Kentucky in a Tuesday afternoon college baseball game played at Dudy Noble Field.The Bulldogs scored in the ninth inning and then won the contest in the 10th inning, which was the first extra-inning game of the season. MSU won by walk-off fashion for the first time since a 6-5 win over Ole Miss on April 12, 2014.

Senior left-hander Lucas Laster turned in another quality start for the Bulldogs. Laster allowed four hits and three runs (two earned), with five strikeouts and a walk. Daniel Brown followed and ran into trouble in the ninth inning when the Hilltoppers struck with back-to-back home runs for a 5-4 lead.

MSU (15-3) built a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Things got started when Wes Rea drew a leadoff walk. Reid Humphreys followed with a two-run home run – the Bulldogs’ first round-tripper against Marshall since February 21.

Matt Spruill kept things going with a base hit. Josh Lovelady reached as a hit batsman. Ryan Gridley and Brent Rooker followed with back-to-back RBI-singles.

WKU (6-8) answered with two runs in the fifth inning. Danny Hudzina hit the first of his two home runs in that at-bat. Paul Murray also had an RBI-double. After that hit, Laster retired eight of the final nine he faced.

MSU would then hold the lead through a difficult eighth inning when WKU scored once but got back-to-back strikeouts by Brown to snuff that threat. Brown was then touched for home runs by Hudzina and Kaleb Duckworth.

A leadoff single by Seth Heck started things in the ninth inning. A walk and two wild pitches helped get the game-tying run home. Holland drove pinch runnerMichael Smith home with the game-winner an inning later.

MSU finished with 13 hits. Ryan Gridley, Heck and Lovelady had multiple hits.Trevor Fitts (1-1) got the final out in the 10th inning to pick up the win.

WKU finished with nine hits. Hudzina, Murray and Leiff Clarkson each had multiple hits. Breannan Pearson (0-3) took the loss in relief.

The teams complete their series with a 5 p.m. start Wednesday at Dudy Noble Field. The contest will be available nationally on SEC Network +.