CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – For most of the first six innings, Mississippi State had all of the momentum against Virginia and then the home team had it flip.
After State failed to cash in for some insurance runs against Virginia freshman reliever Matt Augustin, the dangerous Virginia lineup would make the Bulldogs pay. State left six runners on base in the final three innings and the Cavs scored two runs in the seventh to tie the game before walking off the Bulldogs in the ninth inning, 5-4.
It was the 13 loss this season for a Bulldog team that has lost most of them the same way. State’s offense couldn’t come through in key moments and the bullpen couldn’t hold it where it was on Saturday.
“Great college baseball game, unfortunately we come up on the other side of it,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “Just two really good teams playing in a great environment with everything on the line. Tip your hat to those guys – they got a big hit late when they needed it.”
Bulldog offense can’t come through in clutch opportunities
MSU (39-21) outhit the home team 10-8 in the game but struck out 11 times and left nine batters stranded to the Cavs’ four. Clutch hits would be the difference in being winners and losers.
Frustrating matters the most on Saturday is the middle of the order is beginning to come through for State. Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines each seem to be coming out of their slumps as they finished with two hits each and Hines had a three-run home run early in the ball game that got the Bulldogs going.
“That struggle was tough. You just got to put your head down and keep working. Maybe I can come out of it and get hot for us and win ball games,” Hines said. “It’s just how baseball goes and they weren’t falling for me at the time. Maybe they’ll start falling.”
This came just one day after Jordan walked off the ball game against St. John’s with his three-run shot and ended a 1-for-26 stretch.
Four different hitters managed to get two hits for State as David Mershon and Bryce Chance were 2-for-4.
Chances were there for the lineup to come through for even bigger things, however. The Bulldogs fell down 2-0 early off the bat of Eric Becker as he hit a two-run triple off of the wall.
Hines would come through immediately and hit a three-run homer with two outs after Mershon and Jordan got on base before that. State added another run in the fourth with a throw that went into centerfield scoring Chance that made it 4-2.
The Bulldogs made some big plays on defense and Jurrangelo Cijntje had some big pitches for four-straight scoreless innings. Then things began to turn.
After Aaron Downs singled to leadoff the seventh inning, the Cavs would make a pitching change. The freshman Augustin had two on and had a 3-0 advantage when a ball out of the zone was called a strike. Two pitches later, Mershon flew out and Jordan struck out.
UVA came back and had three hits to tie the game up as Becker came through again with a one-out, two-RBI single tying the game. State had two on base for the next two innings but came up empty again.
“That was kind of the difference in the ball game,” Lemonis said of leaving runners on base. “It’s not about always driving in the run but you’d like to have good at bats where you control the counts and put a good swing on the ball and we really didn’t.”
After the third chance for runs failed for the Bulldogs, UVA would cash in against Tyson Hardin. The Hoos got a leadoff double from Harrison Didawick and he came around to score on an error from Amani Larry with one out to end the game.
Cijntje threw an otherwise strong game. The sophomore pitcher gave up seven hits, four runs and one walk while striking out five in 7.0 innings and six of the hits and four of the runs came in two frames. Hardin (3-3) couldn’t finish things off for the Bulldogs as he made it 1.1 innings, gave up a hit, a run, two walks and struck out two.
Up Next
With the loss, State’s backs are now against the wall. The Bulldogs will have to have a rematch with St. John’s on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN+. A win will pit the Bulldogs in a rematch with the Cavs at 5 p.m.
Brooks Auger will start for the Bulldogs in the first matchup.
“I feel like our backs have been against the wall since week one so I don’t worry about that much. I’ve done this long enough that I’ve had an opportunity to win a Regional a lot of ways,” Lemonis said. “Unfortunately, you can only focus on the game at Noon (Sunday) and that’s what I’ve got to get the guys to focus on.
“We played a great game. You have to tip your hat to them – they just beat us. We didn’t give them anything and they didn’t give us anything and it was a fight. I’m not disappointed in our effort at all. Sometimes baseball just falls that way.”
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