Mississippi State Uses Extra Innings To Slay Titans, 5-4
May 25, 2016 | Softball
Official Game Statistics
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- Cal State-Fullerton rallied twice from two-run deficits, but Candice Baker's wild pitch brought Mississippi State's Blair Geddings racing home from third in the bottom of the eighth to help the Bulldogs pick up their first series victory with a 5-4 thriller late Friday evening at the Palm Springs Classic.
Rookie Courtney Bures highlighted a 2-for-3 night at the plate with her seventh home run of the season, while Geddings walked and scored twice on a 2-for-3 hitting line to pace the Mississippi State (10-4) offense. The once-ranked Titans (3-3) got a solo homer on a 2-for-4 plate tally from Lindsey Bashor.
MSU starter Stephanie Comeaux scattered struck out six and scattered six hits over six and one-thirds innings of work, but it was Melissa Massey (3-1) who picked up the victory for the Bulldogs with a late-game relief appearance. Although allowing the tying run to cross the plate on a sac fly in the seventh, Massey surrendered just one hit and struck out one in picking up her third victory of the campaign. Baker (2-1) allowed five runs on six hits and a pair of walks to saddle the loss for Fullerton.
The win marked the first for the Bulldogs in three meetings with Fullerton in a series that dates back to the 2000 season. State had scored a combined one run in the previous two meetings with the Titans.
"It showed the character of our team, especially after the way we played that first game (against Cal). You hope that you can bounce back," said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. "We scored some runs early, they scratched back and tied it up in the seventh, but we came right back in extra innings and won it. That was a good boost for our ball club.
"We got a great pitching performance from Stephanie and Melissa came in and shut the door to give us an opportunity to win. Courtney's home run early in the game was huge for us and Blair Geddings scored twice after battling a stomach bug the entire day. She gave us a very gutty performance."
Geddings drew a one-out walk in the first and moved into position moments later on Bures' double to the gap in left field. The Bulldogs would take their first lead of the game a couple of pitches later when a Baker wild pitch plated Geddings from third, then stretched their lead out to a pair in the bottom of the second on Baker's errant throw to first base.
Fullerton struck back with two runs of its own in the third, using Bashor's solo homer and Marissa Marzan's RBI double to left field to knot the score at two, but the Bulldogs answered in the bottom of the frame, getting Geddings aboard on a leadoff single to set the table for Bures' shot over the leftfield fence. After three relatively quiet innings, the Titans rallied for two more in the seventh, using a RBI single by Amanda Kamekona and a sac fly by Katie Gollhardt with two outs, to force the game into extra frames. With the international tiebreaker rule in effect in the eighth, MSU got a key defensive out when leadoff batter Ashley Van Boxmeer fouled out on a bunt attempt before Massey took down Marzan on a soft grounder to the shortstop and fanned pinch hitter Dana Crucil on a three-pitch strikeout.
Fullerton opted to intentionally walk Bures to lead off the bottom of the eighth, but Tanelda McDonald laid down a full-count bunt with the next at-bat to put a pair into scoring position. Fullerton head coach Michelle Gromacki called for the intentional walk to Jennifer Jessup with the next at-bat, but Baker went wild with her second offering to bring home Geddings on a close play at the plate.
Mississippi State will continue round-robin play at the Palm Springs Classic on Saturday morning when the Maroon and White suit up to face 18th-ranked Pacific at 9:30 a.m. PST, before closing out second-day play with a 3 p.m. contest against Utah.
