Bulldogs Clinch Series With 2-1 Victory Over South Carolina In Nightcap
May 25, 2016 | Softball
* Official Statistics (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. - South Carolina needed just three at-bats to forge a first inning lead, but 22nd-ranked Mississippi State rallied for single runs in the second and third innings behind a dominant outing from righthander Ragan Blake to clinch its weekend series with the Gamecocks on a 2-1 victory in Saturday's nightcap in Starkville.
Sophomore all-American Courtney Bures singled twice in three trips to the plate to pace the offense for the Bulldogs (27-7, 4-1 SEC) who ran their win streak out to a series-best four games in taking their first league set ever against the Gamecocks. Ashton Payne crossed the plate once on a 2-for-3 outing for South Carolina (21-12, 1-6).
Blake (14-3), who captured a victory in relief in game one against USC, struck out four and allowed just one hit over her last six innings of work to secure the win for MSU. Jessica Barnes (3-4), who spent much of her rookie season in 2005 on the disabled list with a shoulder injury, offset four strikeouts with a pair of earned runs in taking the loss for the Gamecocks.
We're just a little bit impatient and frustrated at the plate right now and I think that has sort of carried over, said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. That's the biggest thing. I think we just need to go in there and relax and play the way that we can. Ragan really pitched a good game for us. The first two hits were ground balls that had eyes and found a hole. They really didn't hit her hard in the game at all. Then, we give up the run on a careless play.
Winning two SEC series is a good start. We want to try and get the sweep tomorrow, but that is going to be the key for us - finishing what we started. It's still early in SEC play. We've only played two weekends, so we have a lot of conference games ahead of us and a lot of tough games ahead of us as well.
South Carolina led off the contest with consecutive seeing-eye singles and took an early lead on a fly ball to centerfield that, due to miscommunication, led to Payne scoring all the way from second base on a sac fly. MSU would not go quietly though, beginning the second with a leadoff triple from Sara Hickerson, then tying the score two batters later on a fielder's choice. State would take the game's last lead in the ensuing inning, leading off the third with a Hayle Guess single and then finishing out the scoring chance on Bures' RBI knock.
Following South Carolina's singles in the first, Blake would retire the next seven Gamecocks in order before surrendering a one-out single in the third. USC would get nothing after that, however, as Blake sat down 13 of the final 14 batters with the only blemish coming on a fielding error by the MSU defense in the seventh.
Mississippi State and South Carolina will close out their series on Sunday when the squads battle one another in the series finale at the MSU Softball Field. First pitch has been set for a 1 p.m. and admission to all 2006 Bulldog Softball home games is free.
