Baseball Bulldogs Drop 5-3 Decision To Rebels In Governor's Cup

Tuesday, March 30

Pearl, Miss.

6:30 PM

Mississippi State

14-11

Ole Miss

20-6

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Ole Miss	0	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	5	11	0
Mississippi State	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	3	6	4

MSU's Power-Hitting Connor Powers Tabbed SEC Player Of The Week

Baseball Bulldogs Drop 5-3 Decision To Rebels In Governor's Cup

March 30, 2010 | Baseball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

• Official Statistics
• Official Statistics (PDF)

PEARL, Miss. - Four Mississippi State errors led to the Baseball Bulldogs downfall, as MSU dropped a 5-3 decision to Ole Miss in the fourth-ever Governor's Cup baseball game played at Trustmark Park.

A crowd of 7,322 filled out the home of the Mississippi Braves, a minor-league Class AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves to watch the contest between in-state rivals which does not count in the Southeastern Conference standings. The Rebels won a second straight Governor's Cup and evened the four-game series at two wins apiece.

The 14th-ranked Rebels (20-6) never trailed in the contest after plating three runs in the second inning. The big inning was helped along by a pair of MSU miscues which led to pair of unearned runs.

"We aren't displaying the talent level we need to right now," MSU head coach John Cohen said. "Our approach on 0-2 counts today was horrendous. I don't fault our kids effort at all right now. We are really over thinking and trying to do too much right now."

The Bulldogs (14-11) trailed 4-0 before scoring twice in the sixth inning. After a leadoff single by Sam Frost, Connor Powers later hit a massive two-run home run over the extended wall in dead center field. The round tripper was the 47th of Powers' career - tying him for fifth all-time at MSU with Tracy Echols.

Ironically, it was also the first home run in four Governor's Cup matchups for either team.

Trailing 5-2, the Bulldogs made one last stab. In the eighth inning, Nick Vickerson singled, Luke Adkins walked and Russ Sneed walked. A groundout scored one run but the Bulldogs got no closer.

An inning later, the Bulldogs again got the potential game-tying run to the plater after UM reliever Brett Huber hit Jet Butler to start the at-bat. Matt Tracy entered in relief and struck out the side, including the final two on called strikes to end the contest.

The Bulldogs finished with six hits. Powers was the lone multiple hitter for the Maroon and White.

The Rebels finished with 11 hits. Zach Miller and Kevin Mort each had three hits for the Rebels, who had only three earned runs in the contest.

Starting pitcher David Go forth (1-1) worked 5.2 innings to garner the win. Goforth allowed three hits and two runs (both earned), with one strikeout and a pair of walks. Eric Callender worked around three hits to only allow one run in 1.1 innings of relief, before giving way to Huber.

For MSU, C.C. Watson (2-1) threw his longest outing as a Bulldog while talking the loss. Watson allowed four hits and three runs (two earned), with one strikeout and a pair of walks. Luke Bole, Tyler Whitney, Ben Bracewell and Cory Collins also appeared on the mound for the Bulldogs.

MSU travels to No. 19 South Carolina this weekend to resume league play. The Bulldogs and Gamecocks play at 6 p.m. CT Friday, 3 p.m. CT Saturday and 1 p.m. CT Sunday. The Saturday contest will be televised regionally by SportSouth, while the Sunday contest will be shown nationally by ESPNU.