Diamond Dawgs rock Golden Eagles 12-0 in top 12 showdown

A month after Mississippi State lost a midweek matchup in Hattiesburg against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, the Diamond Dawgs had a chance at revenge.

No. 6 MSU was riding the momentum of a three-game sweep against Vanderbilt and kept that red-hot approach at the plate. Scoring in the first five innings of the game, the Diamond Dawgs rolled over the Golden Eagles in a 12-0, seven-inning game.

After scoring in every inning of the Sunday Vandy game, State scored in the first five innings on Tuesday marking 12-straight frames with at least a run including seven with two or more runs.

“Who would have thought seven innings against Vanderbilt and the first five innings here that you’d score at least a run in every inning. That’s tough to do,” head coach Brian O’Connor said. “It shows the balance of the lineup. The lineup has been the same for a handful of games here.”

Offensive barrage, pitching dominance take care of USM

Along with a dominant offensive performance that included 14 hits from nine different players, seven State pitchers controlled the USM lineup. The group of seven struck out 11 batters and walked zero to deliver a strong outing.

It was a similar story for the Bulldogs against the Golden Eagles for the second-straight year. After losing in Hattiesburg last season, State turned around to belt USM 18-3 in seven innings in Starkville. The Diamond Dawgs dropped a 7-6 loss to USM this season on the road back on March 3, but this game would tell a different story.

State fell behind in that first matchup 5-0 but the tables turned on Tuesday. A three-run first inning welcomed the Golden Eagles as the Bulldogs got four singles and a walk and got out to a 3-0 lead.

The Bulldogs would add every inning until the sixth and a five-run frame in the third would do the biggest damage. Jacob Parker hit a ball 113 mph off of the bat for a three-run home run and Aidan Teel delivered a two-run shot that inning to expand the lead out to 9-0.

After Ryder Woodson delivered an RBI single in the fourth to push that lead to 10-0, Reed Stallman delivered a final knockout blow with his two-run single to make it 12-0. From there, State pitchers continued to lock down USM’s offense.

Billingsley and Bauer headline great night for State pitchers

Chris Billingsley started the game and threw 2.0 scoreless inning with two hits and two strikeouts. State also got a great development out of freshman flamethrower Jack Bauer who earned his first career win and he retired all four batters that he saw.

“All of them threw strikes – no walks,” O’Connor said. “It was great to get Jack Bauer out there. I think it’s probably been three weeks since he’s pitched and that was intentional. There were some delivery changes coming out of Arlington that we committed to make with him that coach Parker worked with him on.

“That was going to mean that he wasn’t going to pitch in a game for a period of time until those delivery changes happened. Tonight was the time to get him out there and I thought he looked terrific. That can be a real shot in the arm for us.”

Jack Gleason, Parker Rhodes, Dane Burns and Maddox Webb all pitched with a combined two hits, no runs and no walks for them and six strikeouts. Freshman lefthander Maddox Miller finished the game off by working around three singles in the seventh and striking out the side to keep the Golden Eagles shutout and send the game to a run rule.

At the plate, it was a monstrous day for State’s lineup against a deep USM pitching staff. Teel didn’t play in the first matchup with the Golden Eagles after going down with an illness. Teel was 4-for-4 with two RBI in the win.

“It’s funny how hitting is contagious,” Teel said. “Having Bryce Chance in the nine hole and myself leading off, I go up to the on deck circle knowing I’m going to get a chance to bat. It’s a lot of fun being on a team like this where we rally around each other and guys are unselfish.”

Gehrig Frei and Woodson had 2-for-2 nights and drove in a couple of runs each while Parker had the three RBI with his home run and Stallman drove in two on a hit. Sullivan continued to get on base with two walks and a hit.

After the win, State (21-4, 4-2 SEC) has now started 17-0 this season at Dudy Noble Field and the Diamond Dawgs have won 19-straight games in the friendly confines. Another large crowd saw this game as 12,887 packed in for the largest on-campus midweek game in college baseball history.

It’s time for the Bulldogs to hit the road, however, as State heads to No. 18 Ole Miss for a big rivalry matchup with the Rebels. The series begins on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.