Moore, Bailey Home Runs Power No. 25 MState Softball To 6-1 Win Over Mount St. Mary's

Saturday, March 7

Honolulu, Hawaii

3:00 PM

Mississippi State

14-5

Mount St. Mary's

1-8

Mount St. Mary's

Mississippi State

MState Softball's Bainbridge, Dunlap Receive SEC Honors

Moore, Bailey Home Runs Power No. 25 MState Softball To 6-1 Win Over Mount St. Mary's

March 07, 2009 | Softball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

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HONOLULU, Hawaii ? Freshman Courtney Moore and junior Jessie Bailey each hit a two-run home run, and freshman Lindsey Dunlap threw six and one-thirds scoreless innings in relief as the No. 25 Mississippi State softball team knocked off Mount Saint Mary's 6-1 Saturday afternoon at the Pepsi Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Moore' second home run of the season, a fourth-inning blast, put State ahead for good and capped a 2-for-3 afternoon for the El Sobrante, Calif., native. Bailey's home run in a three-run fifth was her third of the year, tying her with sophomore Ali Bainbridge for the team lead.

Less than 24 hours after tying the school's single-game doubles record with five against Hawaii, the Bulldogs added four more on Saturday to bring their weekend total to 16. Junior Chelsea Bramlett added one of the four doubles to extend her hit streak to 12 games. Bainbridge, freshman Ka'ili Smith and sophomore Courtney Nesbit also hit two-baggers for the Bulldogs (14-5).

After falling behind 1-0 in the first and failing to capitalize on a pair of scoring opportunities over the first three frames, the Bulldog bats finally came to life in the fourth. Nesbit sparked the inning with a one-out double to the gap in left-center, and Smith doubled over the head of the right fielder to bring her home with the tying run.

After Smith was thrown out trying to take third, Sammie Jo Bailey kept the inning alive with a hard ground ball that deflected off the Mountaineers' shortstop, and Moore put the Bulldogs on top for good as she took a pitch deep over the wall in center field.

The three-runs would prove to be all Dunlap would need as the Hueytown, Ala., native, in relief of starter Kelsey Nurnberg, held the Mountaineers (1-8) to six hits and matched a career high with nine strikeouts to move to 6-3 on the year. Dunlap worked out of a trio of bases-loaded jams in the game as the Mountaineers stranded 13 runners on base.

“It took us a little while to get on track,” MState head coach Jay Miller said. “We wanted to jump on them from the start, but we let them hang around. Lindsey did a nice job of coming in and shutting them down after she struggled last night. We finally got the bats going and got some big hits from Courtney Moore and Jessie Bailey that put the game away. Hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow and finish the weekend on a strong note.”

The Bulldogs gave the rookie hurler some extra cushion with a trio of runs in the fifth that pushed the lead to its final 6-1 margin. Bramlett reached on a one-out double to right-center and scored on a Bainbridge two-bagger over the head of the Mount Saint Mary's left fielder. Bailey capped the frame with her third home run of the season, a two-run shot over the wall in left.

Amanda Burk paced The Mount with a 3-for-4 afternoon. Her RBI double in the first put Mount Saint Mary's on top 1-0.

Mountaineer starter Amanda Hanson suffered the loss to fall to 0-3 on the year. Hanson gave up the six runs on eight hits with a pair of walks and a strikeout in five innings.

State closes out the weekend and its pre-Southeastern Conference slate on Sunday, taking on Radford in a game set for a 3 p.m. CST first pitch at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.