Video: Mississippi State Baseball Falls To Texas A&M In Game Two

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – Super Bulldog Weekend continued to be a struggle for the Mississippi State baseball team Saturday afternoon.

Playing before a Dudy Noble Field crowd of 15,078 – the second largest on-campus crowd in NCAA history – No. 8 MSU dropped the middle game of a Southeastern Conference series to No. 3 Texas A&M 10-6.

Texas A&M also won the series opener and thus handed the Bulldogs their first series defeat of the season. The Aggies also moved into first place in the Western Division standings with the win. Texas A&M is 28-8 overall and 9-5 in league play, while MSU fell to 24-11-1 and 8-6.

“There is a little luck involved and that is how a five-run inning takes place,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “We didn’t take advantage of our chances. Daniel Brown was great out the bullpen. We just couldn’t contain them in the eighth inning.”

Texas A&M showed its offensive prowess again by pounding out 17 hits. The Aggies erased a 2-0 deficit by scoring five times in the third inning to take the lead for good.

MSU built the early lead on a two-run home run by Reid Humphreys in the first inning.

In the third inning, the Aggies took the lead with five runs on six base hits. MSU starter Austin Sexton (3-2) pitched three innings.

The Aggies extended the lead to 7-2 in the fourth inning, while the Bulldogs came back with a run on a John Holland ground ball out.

In the sixth inning, the Bulldogs had their big rally.

Gavin Collins singled, Cody Brown walked and Ryan Gridley walked. Holland followed with an RBI-single, while Mangum followed with a two-run hit. The Aggies then turned to Mark Ecker, who got three straight outs to strand a pair of Bulldogs.

Ecker was dominant from there with three more shutout innings, while his teammates provided insurance with a three-run eighth inning.

MSU finished with nine hits. Humphreys and Collins each had multiple hits. Kale Breaux followed Sexton and gave way to Daniel Brown. Brown pitched 4.2 innings, allowing three hits and two runs with six strikeouts, a career high in relief. Zac Houston, Ethan Small and Paul Young also pitched.

Boomer White, Joel Davis and Hunter Melton each had three hits for the Aggies. Jace Vines (6-0) threw five innings for the win, while Ecker earned his second save.

The series finale is at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and will be broadcasted on SEC Network +, which fans can access through ESPN3.com or the WatchESPN app.