Lady Vols Rally To Thwart Upset Bid By Mississippi State
May 25, 2016 | Softball
* Official Statistics
* Official Statistics (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Homestanding Mississippi State used an RBI single by Hayle Guess with one out in the bottom of the third to forge an early lead, but fourth-ranked Tennessee answered with runs of their own in the sixth and seventh innings to send State to its fourth consecutive home loss on a 2-1 triumph Saturday afternoon at the MSU Softball Field.
Mississippi State (30-23, 4-17 SEC) tallied six hits off of all-American southpaw Monica Abbott, led by a perfect 2-for-2 outing from sophomore Nakita Boyce. Guess turned in her RBI on a 1-for-3 hitting line and rookie Sammie Jo Bailey walked and scored the only run for State on a 1-for-2 day at the plate. Lindsay Schutzler (2-for-4) and Liane Horiuchi (0-for-2, SF) both drove in runs for Tennessee (45-6, 16-6) who stretched their winning streak out to 10 games with the result.
MSU starter Stephanie Comeaux scattered five hits and two walks over a six inning start, but did not get a decision for the Bulldogs. Reliever Sara Hickerson (0-3) came on with the score tied at one apiece in the seventh and took the loss after giving up one earned run on a trio of hits. Abbott (33-5) offset four strikeouts with five walks and six MSU hits, but used a little luck to pick up the win for the Orange.
"I thought we had a good opportunity by putting the run on the board early," said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. "We had the bases loaded a couple of times with our cleanup hitter up which is just what you want, but we just can't get anybody to step up and drive in runs. It catches up to you after a while."
After managing just one baserunner through two innings of play, the Bulldogs climbed all over Abbott in the third, using a leadoff walk and two consecutive one-out singles to take the early lead. Abbott would issue her first of two intentional walks to Courtney Bures a couple of batters later to juice the bases, but still exited the inning after inducing Katie Cooley to pop out to second base.
State used a bean ball, a walk and Bures' second intentional free pass of the game to load the bases with two outs in the third, but Abbott got the best of Cooley again, this time slamming the door on the threat when the junior rightfielder fouled out to the catcher.
Tennessee got a one-out double from Tonya Callahan in the sixth and moved the runner to third on a single by Katherine Card to set the table for a sac fly from Horiuchi that tied the game up. The Lady Vols completed the comeback with three-straight two-out base hits in the seventh, the latter of which being a RBI double by Schutzler down the leftfield line.
