No. 6 Diamond Dawgs break out the bats, and the brooms, to sweep Vanderbilt

Sunday’s inside the Southeastern Conference can get a little wild, but Mississippi State was determined to earn a sweep over Vanderbilt.

Though the Commodores brought their most productive offense of the weekend to the park, State was relentless in its own approach. The No. 6 Diamond Dawgs scored a run in every inning and brought home the first sweep of Vandy  since 2000 with a 17-7 win in seven innings.

“You have to learn as a team, in this conference when you have an opportunity to do something special on a weekend you need to capitalize on it. We certainly did that today.” coach Brian O’Connor said. “It was really a pretty special weekend and they proved to themselves they can finish somebody off.”

State offense wouldn’t relent on Sunday

A six-run first inning would set the tone for the Bulldogs. The first five batters got on base with Noah Sullivan, Reed Stallman and Gehrig Frei delivering three-straight RBI hits. With two outs, Kevin Milewski would blow it open as he hit a three-run home run to make it 6-0 early.

Vanderbilt would come back and swing for the fences in the second as the Dores hit a trio of solo home runs to close it to 6-3. As would be the case all game, however, State’s offense would always answer.

Stallman hit a two-run home run in the second to get two of those runs back and then the Dawgs would get another huge inning in the third. Milewski brought in one run on a sac fly and then State would get some more two-out work. Sullivan drove in two with a single and Stallman delivered an RBI double to make it 12-3.

Stone had a two-out error from Woodson open the door in the fourth inning and leadoff man Logan Johnstone made it hurt with a three-run home run to make it 12-6. After Woodson made up for that error with a leadoff double in the fourth, Bryce Chance brought him home with two outs as he doubled to make it 13-6.

State got another run in the fifth on a solo shot from Ace Reese and followed up an RBI single in the sixth with a home run from Woodson and Chance’s RBI single putting a run-rule on the docket.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Chance came up yet again with two outs. Facing a 1-2 count, he would calmly drive a single into left and delivered a walk off win. That hit from Chance gave him a 4-for-5 day with three RBI and two more hits with two outs. He continues to pace the league with a .457 batting average in the nine spot of the lineup.

State finished the game with 19 hits as the offense produced four home runs and four doubles. Every hitter got at least one hit with the exception of leadoff man Aidan Teel. Stallman joined Chance with a 4-for-5 game and had two doubles, a home run and four RBI.

“It’s insane. There’s really no words to describe it,” Milewski said of Chance’s approach. “He just goes up there and knows he’s getting it done.”

Sullivan and Woodson finished 3-for-5 with Woodson delivering a home run and double. Sullivan had three RBI. Frei was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Milewski had four RBI in the win while hitting his second home run of the weekend.

State’s pitching staff finished the weekend allowing just two runs out of the bullpen. Stone (4-0) earned the win after going 4.0 innings but gave up six hits, six runs, three earned runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Charlie Foster and Tyler Pitzer pitched the final 3.0 innings giving up two hits between them, one run, one walk and struck out two batters.

The Diamond Dawgs (20-4, 4-2 SEC) now get set for a big week of instate matchups. State takes on No. 12 Southern Miss on Tuesday night as the Bulldogs look to get revenge on a 7-6 loss in Hattiesburg earlier this year.

“Very excited,” Stallman said of the USM rematch. “They come to us so play poised, play our game and we’ll see what happens.”

Next weekend, State will have a likely top 25 battle at Ole Miss in Oxford with a Friday-Sunday matchup.