Mississippi State
19-16, 2-7
Arkansas
21-11, 6-2
MSU Softball Suffers 18-13 Setback to Arkansas in Series Finale
March 28, 2010 | Softball
• Official Statistics
• Official Statistics (PDF)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Seniors Chelsea Bramlett and Jessie Bailey
combined for seven hits and five RBI Sunday afternoon as the
Mississippi State softball team dropped a tough 18-13 decision to
Arkansas at Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Ark.
State fell to 19-16
overall and 2-7 in SEC play as it wrapped up a season-long 13-game road
swing. Arkansas used an 11-run fifth inning to rally from a six-run
deficit and improve to 21-11 overall and 6-2 in the league.
Bramlett,
who became MSU's career hits leader on Saturday, sparked the Dawgs with
a 4-for-5 effort as the two teams combined for 31 runs and 27 hits in
the nearly three-hour marathon. Bailey added two doubles in a seven-run
third inning en route to a 3-for-4, three-RBI afternoon.
Junior Brittany Bell added a pair of hits while matching Bailey with three RBI in the game.
Bell's
first hit of the day came with two outs in the top of the first. Ka'ili
Smith drew a walk, but the Dawgs were unable to get any runs across,
setting up a two-run bottom half of the inning by Arkansas thanks to a
quartet of walks.
Freshman starter Kylie Vry allowed two walks
to open the frame before giving way to Lindsey Dunlap. Dunlap, who went
4.2 innings and was struck for nine runs, immediately issued a free
pass to Sandra Smith that loaded the bases. A base on balls to Miranda
Dixon plated Jessica Bachkora with the game's first run. Two batters
later, Emily Jones blooped a base hit into left field that plated Becca
Carden and put Arkansas on top 2-0.
The Bulldogs quickly erased
the lead, however, scoring four runs in the top of the second to take a
4-2 advantage. Courtney Nesbit and Erin Nesbit both walked, and Jessie
Spain was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Bramlett then
lined the first pitch she saw to right field, scoring Courtney Nesbit
to give State its first run of the game.
Two batters later, Bell
stepped to the plate and drove a 3-1 pitch from UA starter Hope
McLemore off the wall in left-center that cleared the bases and gave
the Maroon and White the two-run lead.
The next inning, State
exploded for seven runs as it sent 11 batters to the plate. Bailey
sparked the Bulldogs with the first of her two doubles in the inning.
Jessica Cooley gave Mississippi State a 5-4 lead as she singled home
Bailey.
Erin Nesbit followed with her team-leading fourth triple
of the year that scored Cooley and chased Arkansas reliever Chelsea
Cohen from the circle. Jessie Spain, the first batter faced by UA's Kim
Jones, walked to put runners and first and third, and Bramlett
delivered a base hit to right that scored Nesbit to extend the MSU
advantage to 7-4. After Bell walked, Smith hit a bases-clearing double
to left-center that scored Spain and Bramlett to put the Dawgs up 9-4.
Bailey capped the frame as she lined a two-run double that plated Bell and Smith to give State an 11-4 lead.
The
Razorbacks cut the deficit to four as a Sandra Smith double capped a
three-run bottom of the third, but State responded with two runs in the
fifth to extend the lead back out to six at 13-7. Bramlett led off with
a single and took second when Carden misplayed the ball in left field.
Bainbridge brought her home with a base hit through the right side of
the infield.
Two batters later, Arkansas was unable to retire
anyone on a Smith ground ball. The Kapolei, Hawaii, native took second
when Bainbridge was caught in a rundown on a squeeze attempt and scored
the Dawgs' 13th run on a Bailey base hit.
Mississippi State was
unable to hold the lead, however, as Arkansas sent 16 batters to the
plate in the fifth and scored 11 runs to take the final 18-13
advantage.
Dunlap got the first two outs of the inning around
a Bachkora walk. Dunlap issued a base on balls, and Miranda Dixon cut
MSU's lead to 13-10 as she hit a towering ball that found its way over
the left-field fence.
A Courtney Breault walk brought
Stephanie Becker to the mound, but she allowed a Jones single, a walk
and a three-run double by Leslie Dixon en route to being saddled with
the loss to fall to 3-4 on the year.
“Our pitching staff is
really struggling right now. We couldn't throw strikes again today, and
we have to do a better job pitching,” Mississippi State head coach Jay
Miller said. “We scored some runs and gave ourselves a chance, but we
let them back in it. We needed one out in the fifth inning and couldn't
get it, and that was the difference in the game.”
Dixon's double
brought Vry back to the circle, and a mishandled ball by Bainbridge at
second base kept the inning alive. Bachkora was intentionally walked to
load the bases, and the Razorbacks scored the lead runs on a Carden
single that slipped just past the out-stretched glove of Erin Nesbit at
short. A Smith RBI single and a two-run base hit by Breault off Misty
Flesher capped the frame.
MSU was unable to get any runs across
in its final two at-bats, giving Layne McGuirt, Arkansas' fourth
pitcher of the day, her sixth win of the year.
The Bulldogs
return to the MSU Softball Field this week for a four-game home
stretch. State hosts Southern University at 4 p.m. on Wednesday before
welcoming Kentucky to campus for a three-game SEC series. The Dawgs and
Wildcats play a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday before
closing the set with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.
Admission
to all MSU home softball games is free, and a free live audio stream of
the weekend series with Kentucky will be available on www.mstateathletics.com/m2mlive.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Layne McGuirt (6-4)
L: Becker, Stephanie (3-4)
Batting:
2B: Bell, Brittany 1 ; Smith, Ka'ili 1 ; Bailey, Jessie 2
3B: Nesbit, Erin 1
RBI: Bramlett, Chelsea 2 ; Bainbridge, Ali 1 ; Bell, Brittany 3 ; Smith, Ka'ili 2 ; Bailey, Jessie 3 ; Cooley, Jessica 1 ; Nesbit, Erin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bramlett, Chelsea 3 ; Bell, Brittany 1 ; Smith, Ka'ili 2 ; Bailey, Jessie 1 ; Nesbit, Courtney 1 ; Cooley, Jessica 1 ; Nesbit, Erin 2 ; Spain, Jessie 2
SB: Bell, Brittany 1
CS: Bainbridge, Ali 1
HBP: Spain, Jessie 1
Batting:
2B: Sandra Smith 1 ; Leslie Dixon 1
HR: Jessica Bachkora 1 ; Miranda Dixon 1
RBI: Jessica Bachkora 1 ; Becca Carden 3 ; Sandra Smith 3 ; Miranda Dixon 5 ; Courtney Breault 2 ; Emily Jones 1 ; Leslie Dixon 3
SF: Becca Carden 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jessica Bachkora 5 ; Becca Carden 3 ; Sandra Smith 2 ; Miranda Dixon 1 ; Courtney Breault 1 ; Emily Jones 1 ; Tori Mort 1 ; Jessica Robison 1 ; Leslie Dixon 2 ; Brittany Griffiths 1
