Mississippi State falls to Georgia in SEC Tournament Quarterfinals
Mississippi State saw its stay at the 2026 SEC Tournament come to an end on Thursday. The Bulldogs from Starkville fell to the Bulldogs from Athens in a 5-3 defeat to regular-season conference champions, Georgia.
Duke Stone had a strong first three innings. He gave up just one run and struck out four. He was on a good pitch count as well, especially compared to his usual pace, but it didn’t last in the fourth. He let runners aboard and gave up a three-run home run to let Georgia back in front.
MSU head coach Brian O’Connor didn’t delay a change and sent for freshman Jack Bauer out of the bullpen. He got the Bulldogs out of the inning without any more damage and then posted a zero for both the fifth and sixth innings.
MSU got on the board with an RBI hit by Chone James in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1, and got another run back in the sixth from Ace Reese to make it 4-2. The Bulldogs had flirted with starting rallies earlier in the game, but they never got off the ground.
Bauer took MSU into the seventh inning, but let two runners aboard and was replaced by Maddox Webb. He would get one out but loaded up the bases with the middle of the Georgia batting order up. Webb faced a chopper up the middle, but smartly throw home to keep a run from scoring while the bases remained loaded.
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O’Connor then turned to Dane Burns, who walked a run home, and immediately went back to the bullpen for Tyler Pitzer with the bases loaded and UGA up 5-2. Pitzer went right at Ryan Wynn and forced a pop-up to end the seventh inning. It was a precariously managed situation that only let up one more run from Georgia, but MSU had only two more innings at the plate to make something happen.
The order flipped over in the eighth for State, but they went down 1-2-3 with Chone James and Ace Reese striking out and Gehrig Frei flying out.
In the ninth, Noah Sullivan, Jacob Parker and Vytas Valincius were up for the final push. Sully led off the inning with a solo home run to get one run back for MSU. It was a great start, but Parker and Valincius grounded out quickly. Reed Stallman got a ball to fall in left field with two gone, but Blake Bevis hit a double play ball to end the game.
MSU awaits the results of the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday.
