MSU Baseball Team Starts Season With A Win

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – A career-best four-hit night by Seth Heck led the way as the Mississippi State baseball team opened the 2015 season with a 6-2 win over Cincinnati Friday night at Dudy Noble Field.

The Bulldogs have won 11 of their last 12 season openers, including six of seven under John Cohen.

MSU pounded out 10 hits and rode a dominating pitching performance from a trio of hurlers.

“Our pitchers really did a great job of throwing strikes,” Cohen said. “They filled up the strike zone and challenged the hitters. That was a good sign. The defense played great behind them. Thirteen strikeouts is a good number.”

Preston Brown (1-0) allowed seven hits and two runs over five innings of work to garner the win. Brown matched a career-high with seven strikeouts. Zac Houston and Daniel Brown each faced the minimum with three strikeouts apiece over two innings of work for each hurler.

MSU erased an early 2-1 deficit by scoring three times in the second inning.

Jacob Robson started things with a single. Wes Rea then reached on an error. Michael Smith followed with an RBI-double. Josh Lovelady then added an RBI-single and Heck completed the scoring in the inning with a run-producing single.

The lead grew to 6-2 an inning later when Robson singled and scored on a Rea double. Another RBI-single by Heck capped the scoring.

From there, the Cincinnati bullpen proved up to the challenge. Ryan Atkinson pitched 5.1 innings of three-hit scoreless relief, following the starter Dalton Lehnen (0-1).

“We had a tough time getting anything going in the late innings,” Cohen said. “We had some really good production from our first-year players today. And Seth had a great night. Four hits and two RBIs from your leadoff spot is a good night.”

Robson was the other multiple hitter for the Bulldogs. He also walked twice and reached base in all four plate appearances.

Cincinnati, which totaled seven hits but made the game’s only three errors, had no multiple hitters.

In the first game at Dudy Noble Friday, Cincinnati rode a three-hit performance from Ian Happ to a 3-1 win over Miami.

MSU returns to action Saturday by facing Miami at noon and Cincinnati at 4 p.m.