Sexton And Laster Combine For Doubleheader Sweep

Saturday, February 28

Starkville

11:00 AM

Mississippi State

11-0

Arizona

9-4

Arizona

Mississippi State

Sexton And Laster Combine For Doubleheader Sweep

March 01, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. – For the Mississippi State baseball team, the hits just keep on coming.

The 13th-ranked Bulldogs started a decisive four-run sixth inning with four-straight hits and MSU used brilliant pitching to hold off Arizona 6-2 Saturday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field. In the second game Saturday, MSU scored five times in the first inning and never looked back in posting an 8-2 victory over Samford.

MSU improved to 12-0 for the fourth time in school history (1985, 2006, 2013) and will look to win a four-game weekend series at home for a third-consecutive weekend when it takes on Samford at the newly scheduled time of 3 p.m. Sunday at Dudy Noble Field.

Arizona and Samford will now play at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Game 1: MSU 6, Arizona 2

Sophomore right-hander Austin Sexton and senior left-hander Ross Mitchell were simply brilliant as MSU completed a two-game series sweep of the 2012 national champions.

Sexton recorded eight of his first 10 outs by strikeout, including striking out the side in both the first and fourth innings. The sophomore became the first Bulldog since 2012 SEC Pitcher of the Year Chris Stratton in April 2012 to strike out 10-plus batters without a walk.

MSU built a 2-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI-groundout by Jacob Robson and an RBI-double by Wes Rea.

Arizona (9-4) finally reached Sexton in the fifth inning when Jared Oliva hit a two-run home run, An inning later, the call was made for Mitchell after a two-out single and hit batsman gave the Wildcats a golden opportunity to seize the lead.

Instead, Mitchell threw four pitches before getting an inning-ending groundout. Mitchell (3-0) retired the side in order and worked around one hit in the eighth inning and two hits in the ninth inning to nail down the win.

Rea again got the big sixth inning going with a leadoff double. Luke Reynolds followed with a single to put runners on the corner. Cody Brown and Josh Lovelady made it four straight hits with back-to-back run-scoring singles. Seth Heck hit into a double play but it scored a run. A wild pitch capped the outburst.

MSU finished with eight hits, including multiple-hit games from Rea and Lovelady.

Arizona finished with six hits. Oliva and Bobby Dalbec had multiple hits. Starting pitcher Robby Medel (1-1) was lifted in the sixth inning and took the loss.

Sexton allowed four hits and a pair of runs with career-high 10 strikeouts. Mitchell faced 13 batters and worked around three hits in 3.1 innings of shutout relief.

Game 2: MSU 8, Samford 2

Saturday's big win in the opener carried over to the nightcap where another nice crowd cheered the Maroon and White on during a five-run first inning.

Heck reached as a hit batsman. Ryan Gridley and Jacob Robson followed with walks to load the bases. Rea and Reynolds each drew walks to force in runs. A wild pitch scored Robson. The Bulldogs then had their first hit on a two-run single by Cody Walker.

The lead grew to 7-0 in the third inning when Brown singled and was followed by an RBI-double from Walker and RBI-single by John Holland. Robson hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to close the home team's scoring.

Such offense would be more than enough for the MSU pitching trio of Lucas Laster, Levi Mintz and Dakota Hudson.

Laster (2-0) recorded the quality start as he worked 6.1 innings, allowing 11 hits and two runs (both earned), with seven strikeouts. Laster was lifted during a two-run seventh-inning by the Bulldogs (3-6).

Mintz completed the seventh inning, while Hudson threw two innings of shutout relief with four strikeouts.

MSU finished with nine hits, including multi-hit games from Vickerson, Brown and Walker. Walker added his first three RBIs of the season.

For more information on head coach John Cohen's club, follow the team on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for “HailStateBB.” You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for “HailStateSnap.”