Mississippi State Beats CS Fullerton, Is One Win From Winning Regional

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – When facing one of the elite pitching staffs in the nation, the Mississippi State duo of Austin Sexton and Blake Smith proved ready to perform.

Sexton and Smith combined on a five-hitter as fourth-ranked Mississippi State knocked off No. 24 Cal State Fullerton 4-1 on the second day of the Starkville Regional before a crowd of 10,656 at Dudy Noble Field.

No. 6 national seed and regional top-seed MSU (43-16-1) will face either No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton (36-22) or No. 3 seed Louisiana Tech (41-19) at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, needing one more win to reach its third super regional in the past six seasons.

Fullerton and Tech will play an elimination game at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The winner there would then have to defeat MSU on both Sunday and Monday to win the regional championship.

MSU will play in a regional championship game for the third time in four seasons.

“Cal State Fullerton can really play,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “They understand pitching and defense. If they score two or three runs, it is remarkable how many games they have won. Gavin Collins had a couple of errors early, but he responded with four major-league plays and saved runs for us.”

Cal State Fullerton entered the contest with the nation’s lowest earned run average. However, the Bulldogs quickly proved they could pitch, too.

Austin Sexton (8-3) threw 6.1 innings, allowing five hits and one run (earned), with four strikeouts and a walk. Blake Smith threw 2.2 innings of hitless relief for his fifth save. Jacob Robson made a catch on the warning track to close out the victory.

“Austin was just incredible,” Cohen said. “He gave us everything that he had. You saw earlier today what Fullerton is all about (the completion of a 1-0 win over Louisiana Tech in a contest suspended from Friday). You know going in, you can’t make mistakes and really every pitch is going to be critical.

“Blake was excellent out of the bullpen. Up and down the lineup, we had some key hits. However, the pitching and defense was going to be the key. We really were great in those two phases of the game.”

In the third inning, John Holland singled and Jack Kruger doubled for the Bulldogs. A ground ball out by Nathaniel Lowe made it 1-0.

The Bulldogs kept plugging from there but did not chase Fullerton starter Colton Eastman (8-3) until the seventh inning. In that inning, Brent Rooker started things with a double. After a sacrifice bunt, Ryan Gridley had an infield hit to score Rooker. Gridley would later take second on a wild pitch and score on a hit by Mangum.

Eastman worked 6.2 innings, allowing eight hits and three runs (all earned), with no walks and seven strikeouts.

An RBI-double by Robson plated a critical insurance score in the eighth inning.

MSU finished with nine hits. Mangum had two hits, but the Bulldogs overall had hits from eight of nine lineup spots. Josh Vargas had two hits for the Titans.