Diamond Dawgs continue to show ability to fight after sweep of Vandy

A weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., brought Mississippi State baseball down to earth a bit.

The Diamond Dawgs had risen to No. 3 in the country and had just two losses against top 10 competition by one run each. Facing off against another top 10 team in Arkansas to open SEC play, the opportunity was there for State to make a major statement and end a long series losing streak to the Razorbacks.

Instead, the Bulldogs squandered away two winnable ball games and lost the series with a loss each in game one and game three. How State would respond to that would say a lot about Brian O’Connor’s team.

This past weekend, the Bulldogs brought in Vanderbilt for a three-game set fresh off of the Commodores’ series win against LSU. The response from State was an impressive three-game stretch in which State commanded the series from the early stages of Friday night until the run-rule win on Sunday.

“Three huge wins. They were all a little bit different,” O’Connor said. “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 (Sunday). Pretty complete weekend. It was good to see some guys really emerge.”

State sets the tone with tough Friday win

The weekend began with State winning an extremely tough 4-2 ball game on Friday night.

Leading 4-1 through the first three innings, State’s offense slowed down the rest of the way and then the pitching staff faced some adversity. Ace starter Ryan McPherson would leave the game before the top of the fifth began with an apparent injury.

Without much notice, Jack Gleason had to get up and get warm before coming into the game to load the bases with no one out. Gleason fought out of that in the fifth with a lineout and double play. Gleason put two in scoring position with one out in the sixth and Maddox Webb came into the game. After walking a batter with two outs, he got a pop up to end the inning.

From there, Ben Davis commanded things. He pitched the final 2.2 innings giving up one hit, one walk and one run while striking out three to earn the save. A week after struggling in relief with Arkansas, it was a welcome sign for Davis in a tough spot.

“I think we handled it great and of course the scoreboard shows that too,” Davis said. “It was like just pick up your guy and if there were runners on, those are your runners now and you don’t let them score. The confidence of the last inning to this week, it was just carrying that confidence and doing what it takes to win the game.”

O’Connor didn’t have an update on McPherson after Friday’s game or after the weekend had concluded. McPherson had an MRI on Sunday, but the coach and his staff did not know the results of that scan.

Game two produced far less drama because of the comfort of Tomas Valincius.

The Virginia transfer experienced one rocky inning. An error on Ryder Woodson opened the door for the Commodores to get a couple of hits and a walk to cut a 4-0 lead in half. Outside of that, it was complete domination for Valincius.

The talented left hander dominated the Dores’ lineup with his slider, retiring seven in a row via strikeout from the fifth inning until he exited in the seventh. Valincius threw 7.0 innings with just two hits, two unearned runs, a walk and a career-high 14 strikeouts.

He’s just always looked to me that he gets stronger as it goes on. We needed that. He competed his tail off,” O’Connor said. “The slider and the consistency of it was the best that I’ve seen him ever do.”

Behind Valincius, Brendan Sweeney pitched two solid innings of relief as he surrendered a hit and a walk in 2.0 innings but kept the Dores off the board and he struck out three. Combined, he and Valincius K’d 17 batters and walked two.

Pitching was a strong point all weekend for the Bulldogs as State surrendered just two runs out of the bullpen in the three games. On Sunday, they backed up a rocky start from Duke Stone as Charlie Foster threw a scoreless frame before giving up some action in the sixth inning. Foster and Tyler Pitzer pitched 3.0 innings of relief with two hits, one run and one walk between them while striking out two.

Stone gave up four home runs in the game and six runs total in 4.0 innings, but he was pitching with a large lead. State’s bats would not be denied in game three as the Bulldogs scored six runs in the first inning and had a run in every inning of a 17-7 beatdown in seven innings.

State had four home runs in the Sunday win and got four hits each from Reed Stallman and Bryce Chance with three hits from Noah Sullivan and Ryder Woodson. Chance continues to be one of the most impressive hitters in the country as he leads the SEC with a .457 batting average and is doing it from the nine spot in the lineup.

Chance is now batting 16-of-30 (.533) with two outs and is 9-of-12 with two down in SEC play. He had two hits on Sunday with two outs including the walk off RBI single.

State (20-4, 4-2 SEC) is off to its best start since 2019, but the No. 6 Diamond Dawgs will have a tough week ahead. No. 11 Southern Miss comes to town on Tuesday (6 p.m.) in a rematch from a 7-6 Bulldog loss in Hattiesburg on March 3. This weekend, State travels to Oxford to take on archnemesis Ole Miss. The No. 18 Rebels are coming off of a series win over top 20 Kentucky.