Video: Mississippi State’s Season Ends With Second Loss To Arizona

STARKVILLE, Miss (MSU Athletics / WCBI Sports) – The Mississippi State baseball team’s season came to an end Saturday night when Arizona won 6-5 in extra innings.

A crowd of 13,452 at the Starkville Super Regional at Dudy Noble Field gave the No. 6 national seed Bulldogs a huge lift and congratulated the squad with an ovation after Cesar Salazar ripped the game-winner for Arizona with the bases loaded in the home half of the 11th inning.

MSU dropped a pair of heart-breaking decisions in its second-ever super regional at home. On Friday night, Arizona’s Bobby Dalbec threw a five-hit shutout as the Wildcats took a 1-0 victory. Saturday night, Arizona (44-21) erased a 5-1 deficit in the eighth inning to nail down its 17th-ever appearance in the College World Series.

MSU finishes the season at 44-18-1. The Bulldogs won the school’s first Southeastern Conference regular-season baseball championship since 1989. MSU earned the school’s first-ever national seed and played in a sixth-ever super regional. The squad also became the first in MSU’s rich history to win a regional at home by going undefeated.

While capacity crowds packed the Dude this weekend, several Bulldogs also learned about their futures, with a school-record 11 players taken in the Major League Baseball Draft.

The Bulldogs built a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI-single by Brent Rooker. The Wildcats quickly answered with a solo home run from Dalbec in the home half of the inning.

From there, Austin Sexton pitched well and the Bulldogs were poised to even the series.

A sacrifice fly by Gavin Collins placed the Maroon and White on top 2-1 in the third inning. Rooker then homered in the fourth inning. In the seventh inning, Jake Mangum lined an RBI-double. Rooker then homered for the second time in the contest in the eighth inning for a 5-1 lead.

Sexton pitched 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits and one run (earned), with six strikeouts and a walk. Ryan Rigby then took over and worked until the eighth inning.

In that at-bat, Arizona touched Rigby for three straight hits, including a three-run home run by Ryan Aguilar.

Daniel Brown faced one batter in relief before giving way to Reid Humphreys. Blake Smith (2-1) worked the Bulldogs out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning after Arizona tied things on a single by Alfonso Rivas.

Smith (2-1) would not be as fortunate in the 11th inning when two walks and two singles ended the Bulldogs’ campaign.

Arizona finished with 18 hits. Zach Gibbons had four hits, while Salazar had three hits. Cameron Ming (3-2) pitched the final two innings to earn the win.

Rooker had three hits and three RBIs to highlight MSU’s seven-hit attack.