Big Inning Helps Mississippi State Sink Bucs In Home Opener, 9-1
May 25, 2016 | Softball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State sent 11 batters to the plate in a five-hit, seven-run sixth inning that helped bust a pitching duel wide open and the Bulldogs won their seventh home opener in the last nine years with an abbreviated 9-1 thrashing of East Tennessee State Friday afternoon in the Bulldog Classic.
Sophomore Hayle Guess scored a pair of runs on a 3-for-3 hitting line and Katie Johnson drove in a career-best four runs to pace a torrid Mississippi State (6-0) offense at the plate. All-American Courtney Bures drove in a run on a 2-for-4 day, while Katie Cooley showed a 1-for-1 hitting line with three free passes. Stephanie Cope hit 2-for-2 with a double to pace the Bucs (1-3).
Junior Stephanie Comeaux (3-0) struck out five and allowed just six hits over her third-straight complete game, including retiring 12 of the last 14 batters she faced. Brittney Lerschall (0-2) took the loss for ETSU after surrendering five earned runs on nine MSU hits in five and one-thirds innings from the circle.
(Stephanie) Comeaux started off a little shaky, but she settled down and threw a great game for us, said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. They got their leadoff batter aboard for two of the first three innings, but they only scored one run on her which I thought was a good sign. After that, she settled down and just started dominating. Finally, the bats woke up a little bit and we were able to give her some support.
State got a leadoff single from Guess to begin the game and moved the runner to third base by virtue of a stolen base and a Bures groundout, before taking the early lead after an illegal pitch by Lerschall gave Guess the free pass home. Lerschall helped her own cause in the next inning though, with a one-out RBI single that brought pinchrunner Kate Powell racing home from third with the tying run. State retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a RBI single by Johnson and took a 2-1 lead into what would be the game's final inning.
Guess' one-out triple to right centerfield in the sixth opened up the floodgates for MSU, however, as the Bulldogs made use of five hits and a trio of walks to plate seven runs, highlighted by a base-clearing double by Johnson. With a mercy-rule margin in place, Comeaux retired the last three Bucs in order to slam the door in the bottom of the inning.
