Quality Start By Laster Not Enough In 3-0 Loss To USM

Tuesday, March 24

Pearl, Miss. (Trustmark Park)

6:30 PM

Mississippi State

18-9

Southern Miss

14-8-1

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

Diamond Dawgs Drop Series Opener At Ole Miss

Quality Start By Laster Not Enough In 3-0 Loss To USM

March 25, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

PEARL, Miss. – Mississippi State could not get the offense untracked Tuesday night.

Held to six hits by five Southern Mississippi pitchers, the Bulldogs dropped a 3-0 decision to the Golden Eagles before a crowd of 5,438 at Trustmark Park.

MSU (18-9) was shut out for the first time this season while also losing to Southern Miss (14-8-1) for the first time since 2010. The Bulldogs were shut out for the first time since a 3-0 loss at LSU on April 4, 2014.

Senior left-hander Lucas Laster (3-1) gave the Bulldogs a chance Tuesday night with another strong start in Pearl. Laster (3-1) allowed eight hits and three runs (all earned) in 6.2 innings of work, with four strikeouts and a walk. Ross Mitchell completed the contest by retiring all four batters he faced.

Southern Miss finally broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the sixth inning. After back-to-back outs to start the inning, Taylor Braley started things innocently enough with a single. Matt Durst followed with an RBI-triple to right field. The scoring for that inning end with a follow-up RBI-double by Tim Lynch.

The Golden Eagles again scored with two outs in the seventh inning. Nick Dawson, Connor Barron and Daniel Keating put together consecutive hits with Keating's infield hit scoring Dawson.

Mitchell worked the Bulldogs out of that inning and set the side down in order in the eighth inning. However, the damage had been done.

MSU finished with six hits, with Seth Heck being the team's lone multiple hitter. The Bulldogs stranded five base runners, had one thrown out stealing and also hit into three double plays.

Heck was thrown out stealing after a single in the first inning. John Holland walked but was erased on a double play in the third inning. A leadoff single by Reid Humphreys was erased by a double play in the fifth inning. The Bulldogs had a single and walk but stranded two in the sixth inning.

Cody Brown walked in the seventh inning but was erased on a double play.

Southern Miss starter James McMahon threw 3.2 innings, allowing two hits with a pair of strikeouts. Cody Livingston, Jake Winston, Luke Lowery and Ryan Milton followed in relief. Winston (1-0) threw 2.1 innings to garner the win, while Milton worked around a hit in the ninth inning for his fifth save.

Durst was the lone multiple hitter for the Golden Eagles, who finished with eight hits.

MSU will play host to Southeastern Conference rival Auburn this weekend. The Bulldogs and Tigers are scheduled to play at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Dudy Noble Field. All three games will be available on SEC Network +.