Mississippi State has begun to surge on the baseball diamond in recent weeks and Friday night’s series opener against No. 23 Alabama kept it rolling.
The No. 16 Diamond Dawgs scored in every inning but one with four home runs on the way to a 13-3 run-rule win in seven innings. It kicked off what’s expected to be an eventful weekend in Starkville.
“A lot of guys had great at bats,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We felt like we really had to grind them out because (Greg Farone) was a four to six inning guy and if you could get him out in the third or fourth you really had a chance and that’s what happened (Friday).”
Hunter Hines set the tone as the junior first baseman stayed red hot at the plate hitting two home runs and driving in four runs. It was the fifth home run for Hines in the last five games and got him to 52 in his career which moved him into fifth all-time at State.
The first home run for Hines got things started in the first as he hit a three-run blast to center field on a 1-2 pitch. He came back in the third and started off the inning with a solo shot and Johnny Long extended that lead to 5-0 with a two-out RBI single.
State broke the game open in the fourth frame when Bryce Chance hit a solo home run and then the next four batters reached. The last of those was Amani Larry, who broke out of a major slump by hitting a grand slam to left field that pushed the lead all the way out to 12-0.
“It feels great. It’s more about the team. It’s your team going to work every day,” Larry said. “Guys like Hunter and Dakota (Jordan) continue to push me every day.”
Khal Stephen hoped to get the Bulldogs at least a couple of more innings but ran into trouble in the fifth. The ace pitcher gave up four hits and two walks in that frame as Alabama cut that lead back to 12-3.
MSU got the lead back to 10 runs in the sixth on Ethan Pulliam’s sacrifice fly to right center and Gavin Black would shut things down in the seventh to get the run rule.
With the offense on fire in the ball game, State got a good pitching display outside of the fifth inning. Stephen (7-3) threw 5.0 innings giving up seven hits, three runs, three walks and got six strikeouts. It broke up a string of six-straight starts in which Stephen didn’t get at least 6.0 innings.
Black pitched for the first time since April 16 and ate up the last 2.0 innings with just two hits, no runs, no walks and four strikeouts.
“The thing about Khal is he’s pitched in so many tight games that he’s never been able to sit back and take a deep breath,” Lemonis said. “You lose your focus a little bit, but he locks back in and finishes the inning. He’s a tough kid and got that back under him. I thought Gavin was great. He’s got good stuff so it was good to see him back out there.”
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The win got the Bulldogs to 31-15 on the year and 13-9 in SEC play as they are now winners of nine of the last 10 games. State will go for the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. and look to win the 10 game in the last 11.
“We’re hard to beat, especially when we’ve got Khal on the bump,” Hines said. “It’s just one of those nights where everything goes right. We’ll try to take it to (Saturday). We’re having fun playing baseball and love each other. Couldn’t ask for anything else.”
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