MSU Baseball Beats Missouri For First SEC Sweep Of Season

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – According to Mississippi State baseball coach John Cohen, the key to victories in the third game of Southeastern Conference series is throwing a lot of strikes.

Konnor Pilkington, Daniel Brown and Reid Humphreys did just that as the fourth-ranked Bulldogs finished off a three-game series sweep of Missouri with a 3-1 win Saturday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field.

Earlier 8-2 and 4-3 victories had already given MSU its seventh conference series win of the year. However, the Bulldogs took the final step Saturday and completed the first series sweep of the conference season.

MSU improved to 33-14-1 overall and 15-9 in league play – good for second place in the SEC Western Division standings. The Bulldogs are one game behind division leader Texas A&M. Missouri fell to 24-25 and 7-17 in league play.

“The third day is all about filling the strike zone,” Cohen said. “If you don’t walk people, you can win. The final game is all about toughness. I thought our kids really competed hard. We hit the ball hard all day and had very little to show for it.

“On the mound, we threw strikes the entire ballgame. You do that and you can win.”

The Bulldogs finished with 13 hits and stranded 12 base runners. The Bulldogs scored single runs in the first, fifth and seventh innings and overcame a shaky defensive inning in the fifth, when Missouri scored its lone run.

In the first inning, Jack Kruger and Nathaniel Lowe had hits before Gavin Collins had an RBI-single. The Bulldogs broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning on an RBI-single by Brent Rooker. Humphreys singled home a critical insurance score in the seventh inning.

Pilkington pitched four-plus innings, allowing five hits and one unearned run, with four strikeouts and a walk. Daniel Brown (3-2) got the Bulldogs out a huge jam in the fifth inning and threw four total innings as well, allowing three hits with three strikeouts.

Humphreys struck out the side in the ninth inning to secure his sixth save of the year. Overall, MSU pitching struck out 10 and walked one.

Kruger and Collins each had three hits for the Bulldogs, while Lowe and Rooker each turned in two. Lowe finished the weekend series going 9-for-13 with 4 RBIs, 3 runs, 2 doubles and a home run.

For Missouri, Shane Benes and Brett Bond each had two hits. Michael Plassmeyer (4-5) took the loss.

MSU will play its final non-conference game of the 2016 season at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Troy. From there, State will head to Auburn to take on the Tigers in a three-game series for its final road conference matchup of the year.

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