Mississippi State
Alabama
Fast Start Lifts 'Bama To Series-Clinching, 9-7 Win In Series Finale
January 01, 1970 | Baseball
* Official Statistics [PDF]
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Alabama (31-24, 15-15 SEC) raced to a 6-0 third inning lead Saturday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field and cruised on to a series-clinching 9-7 SEC baseball win over No. 20 Mississippi State (33-18, 15-13) in the regular season finale for both teams.
Both teams will advance to play in the upcoming SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala. MSU, which finished second in the SEC Western Division and fourth in the league's overall standings, will take on in-state SEC rival Mississippi in Wednesday's 8 p.m. opening-round game at renovated Regions Park (formerly the Hoover Met). Top-ranked SEC champ Vanderbilt meets its in-state rival, eighth-seeded Tennessee, at 5 p.m. in the other bracket one game. Alabama, the seventh seed, faces SEC West champ and No. 2 seed Arkansas at 10 a.m. while No. 3 seed South Carolina takes on No. 6 seed Florida at 1 p.m.
Alabama quickly solved State starter Josh Johnson (2-3), scoring three runs off the senior right-hander in the opening frame. Emeel Salem singled up the middle, stole second, Alex Avila and Kent Matthes followed with back-to-back one-out run-scoring doubles. Bama stranded a pair of runners in the second but got rolling again an inning later. Avila drew an inning-opening walk, and after Johnson fanned Matthews, Matt Bentley followed with his 12th home run of the year, a two-run blast to right that put the Tide up 4-0. Johnson, who retired seven of the 16 batters he faced, left the game after the Bama batters reached with hits. Kyle Moore greeted relief pitcher Jesse carver with a sacrifice fly to right field that plated one run and Jeffrey Rea's fielding error on a ground ball off the bat of Greg Paiml made it a 6-0 UA lead.
Bama starter Will Stroup (3-0) retired the first seven Bulldog batters he faced before the Bulldogs plated three runs in the bottom of the third. Russ Sneed and Mark Goforth singled, with Sneed scoring from third on a balk call against Stroup. Joseph McCaskill singled in Goforth and Edward Easley's towering fly ball near the right field foul line fell in for a run-scoring sun double.
Alabama, which got its lead-off hitter on base in each of the first six innings, plated its seventh run in the fifth. Bentley singled to right to open the frame, advancing bases on an infield groundout and a sacrifice fly and scoring from third when Powers was unable to field a Kyle Moore ground ball at third base.
State staged a two-out rally and answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Joseph McCaskill ripped a two-out two-bagger into the gap in right-center field and scored moments later when for the second time in the game Edward Easley hit a towering fly ball that was lost in the sun by right fielder Kent Matthes. Easley advanced on a wild pitch and later scored on Mitch Moreland's single to left center.
State would get no closer than two runs against Bama. The Tide matched MSU's inning with a two-spot in the sixth. A single, a hit batsman, and a bunt single that was thrown away by Powers at third base got one run in and Avila followed with a sacrifice fly that advanced the score to 9-5.
MSU added single tallies in the last two frames. Stroup struck MSU lead-off batter Joseph McCaskill, and the Bulldog senior later came home on an infield groundout by Brian LaNinfa. Powers, who ended a pesky 0-for-22 streak at the plate with a fourth inning double, opened the ninth inning with a double to right. Jet Butler followed with a single that advanced Powers to third. Alabama then turned to Austin Hyatt to close out the game. Hyatt struck out freshman pinch-hitter Cade Hoggard and Mark Goforth before Jeffrey Rea laced a single up the middle. The hit was the 323rd of Rea's career, moving him past Alabama career hits leader Andy Phillips into sixth place among the SEC's all-time career hits leaders. The rally fell short, however, as Hyatt retired McCaskill on an infield grounder to successfully close out the game and earn his second save.
Stroup scattered 11 hits and was charged with all seven Bulldog runs. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.
Johnson walked two and struck out two in his 2-1/3 inning stay in the game. Five of his six allowed runs were earned. Jesse Carver gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits over 3.0 innings of middle relief. Greg Houston followed with 2-2/3 of scoreless relief and Mitch Moreland retired the three batters he faced in the ninth to close out the MSU pitching.
Edward Easley went 3-for-4 with two run-scoring sun doubles. Joseph McCaskill and Connor Powers had two hits each as eight of MSU's nine starters combined for 12 hits.
Alabama's 12-hit total included two-hit performances by Emeel Salem, Brandon Belcher, Matt Bentley and Brandon May. Bentley and May each drove in two runs.
MSU now begins preparations for its 26th all-time appearance in the Southeastern Conference tournament. The Bulldogs met the Mississippi Rebels (35-21, 16-14) Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the final game on the double-elimination tournament's opening day. The two teams split their four regular season matchups. MSU will be the home team against UM for the first time this season in Wednesday's SEC Tournament game.
