Bulldogs Open Season With 3-1 Toppling Of Western Kentucky
May 25, 2016 | Softball
* Official Statistics
* Official Statistics (PDF)
Junior Katie Cooley highlighted a perfect 3-for-3 hitting line with her first home run of the season, with four other Bulldogs (1-0) recording base hits in the contest. Hayle Guess crossed the plate once on a 1-for-2 showing with a walk, with Nakita Boyce providing the ?€˜Dogs only other run on a 1-for-3 plate tally. Rebecca Horesky paced the Hilltoppers with a 2-for-3 performance with a run scored.
Comeaux (1-0) scattered six hits and struck out seven over her first complete game of the campaign and held Western Kentucky scoreless through her first five innings of work. Ryan Rogge (0-1) saddled the loss for the Hilltoppers after allowing three runs on seven hits and a quartet of walks over a complete game of her own.
We scored two runs early and gave ourselves a bit of a cushion right out of the gates, said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. Stephanie had a very tight strike zone and struggled a little bit, but she came back and made the pitches that she needed to get the job done.
The Bulldogs wasted little time in lighting up the rightfield scoreboard, getting Guess and Boyce aboard and into scoring position immediately, before Guess scored on a fielding error by WKU shortstop and preseason all-Sun Belt honoree Bailey Rolfs to give MSU the early lead. After Courtney Bures walked and Boyce moved 60 feet away on a wild pitch by Rogge, the Bulldogs benefited on a dropped throw at home plate on a double steal attempt to make the score 2-0 heading in the second.
With Comeaux silencing the Hilltopper bats, Cooley added an insurance run for the Maroon and White in the fifth, slamming Rogge's second offering over the fence in MSU's first at-bat in the bottom of the fourth to cushion the lead out to 3-0. A one-out double by Horesky in the sixth and an ensuing RBI single from Becky Bishop would spoil Comeaux's shutout.
