State Snaps Four-Game Skid With 8-2 Victory Over Wildcats
May 25, 2016 | Softball
Official Game Statistics
State Runs Win Streak Against Kentucky To Five Games
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Mississippi State got perhaps its most potent offensive outburst of the season and scratched Kentucky for multi-runs in three different innings to snap a four-game losing streak on a 8-2 victory over the Wildcats in the series opener Saturday afternoon at the Kentucky Softball Complex.
The Maroons (21-17, 3-10 SEC) collected 15 hits for the second time in 11 days, equaling a total it also reached in a 8-0 win at Chattanooga on March 16. State got a career high five RBI from Jennifer Waterman, who homered twice in one game for the second time this season on a 2-for-4 hit tally. Kate Jaspers drove in a pair and scored twice on a 3-for-5 performance, Iyhia McMichael stretched her hitting streak to five games on a 2-for-4 (2 R) collection and Meagan O'Nan crossed the plate on a pair of occasions and finished the game with a 2-for-3 hitting line.
Rachel Friberg paced the 'Cats (15-17-1, 3-13) with a trio of hits on four trips to the plate.
Mississippi State starter Melissa Massey struck out three and allowed a pair of earned runs on four hits before giving way to reliever Stephanie Comeaux in the fourth. Comeaux (7-4) struck out five and scattered five hits in four innings of shutout ball to notch the victory. Gretchen Prugh (2-4) took the loss for Kentucky, surrendering six earned runs on 10 hits in just three and one-thirds innings of work.
Waterman's two-dinger performance marked the second time this season that the Kingwood, Texas, native has accomplished the feat, equaling her performance in State's win over BYU earlier this season in Houston, Texas. She is still one of just four MSU players all-time to record a pair of homers, and becomes just the second (Kellie Wilkerson, 1999) to record the feat twice in one season. Mississippi State's triumph effectively put an end to a four-game losing streak for the Dogs, while also extending its winning streak in its series with Kentucky to five games.
Mississippi State needed just three at-bats to take a lead it would never relinquish in the contest. McMichael and Jaspers reached on consecutive singles before Waterman plated the runners from third on a fielder's choice RBI to the shortstop Brooke Marnitz, who failed to respect McMichael's speed going home. One batter later, Lindsay Nelson extended MSU's lead out to 2-0 on a RBI groundout that plated Jaspers from 60 feet away.
State pushed its lead out to three on Jaspers' two-out RBI single in the second, before Kentucky would answer with a two-out rally that resulted in a pair of runs and cut State's lead to a single run, 3-2, heading into the fourth. The Dogs pushed their lead back out to a pair with consecutive hits to lead off the fifth then, following a groundout by Kate Jaspers, Waterman crushed a shot to leftfield to extend the lead out to four, 6-2.
State got a one-out double from Jaspers in the sixth, before Waterman's second home run of the game provided the final.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 8, KENTUCKY 2
Mississippi State 210 302 0 - 8 15 1 Kentucky 002 000 0 - 2 9 0
Massey, Comeaux (4) and Brown, Geddings (6). Prugh, Cooper (4) and Campbell. W * Comeaux (7-4). L * Prugh (2-4). Save * None. HR MSU, Waterman 2. 2B * MSU, McMichael, Jaspers. UK, Janneck.
