MSU Falls In Tight Rubber Match At No. 25 Mizzou

Sunday, March 25

Columbia, Mo.

1:00 PM

Mississippi State

13-12, 1-5

#25 Missouri

19-6, 3-3

Mississippi State

Mizzou

State will continue its road trip on Tuesday night at Nicholls State.

Photo by: Nicole Reighter

MSU Falls In Tight Rubber Match At No. 25 Mizzou

March 25, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A four-run sixth inning and brilliant relief pitching from Cole Gordon was not enough to lift the Mississippi State baseball to victory in an extra-inning battle Sunday afternoon at Missouri.

Gordon threw six innings of two-hit shutout relief as the Bulldog bullpen allowed one earned run over 10.2 innings of work. Still, the Bulldogs could not protect a ninth-inning and fell to 5-4 to the Tigers in 11 innings at Taylor Stadium.

MSU fell to 13-12 overall and 1-5 in league play, while Missouri improved to 18-6 and 3-3.

"We have to look at the positives," MSU head coach Gary Henderson said. "We had 16 hits with some really great at-bats in the late stages of the game. The bullpen allowed one earned run in basically 11 innings of work. Cole Gordon was exceptional. We really pitched well throughout the series in some difficult circumstances.

"You have to earn it, especially on the road. Every at-bat counts. Every defensive play counts. We had a couple of plays we didn't make in the ninth inning and it hurt us."

Missouri scored twice in the first inning without a base hit.

MSU starter Jacob Billingsley hit the first batter and then walked three in a row. Gordon came in from there and got a double play ball and ground ball out to escape that inning with his team only down 2-0.

It stayed that way until the sixth inning.

Luke Alexander doubled to start the frame. After back-to-back outs, Hunter Stovall laced an RBI-single bringing the Bulldogs within a run.

In the seventh inning, MSU patched together four straight hits to score three runs.

Dustin Skelton and Rowdey Jordan got things started with back-to-back one-out hits. Jake Mangum followed with a two-run double and Luke Alexander capped the scoring on an RBI-single.

The Bulldogs had another chance to expand the lead in the ninth inning but left the bases loaded.

Missouri cashed in in the ninth inning with a pair of errors helping put together a two-run inning to force extra innings for the second straight day.

MSU finished with 16 hits, and Alexander, Stovall, Mangum, Josh Hatcher, Elijah MacNamee and Skelton each had multiple hits.
Gordon allowed two hits and no runs with four strikeouts and two walks in relief on Billingsley. Jared Liebelt threw 2.1 innings, allowing five hits and two runs, both unearned. J.P. France (1-1) pitched the final 2.1 innings and took the loss.

Trey Harris and Kameron Misner each had three of Missouri's nine hits. A sacrifice-fly by Mark Vierling scored the game-winning run.

State will return home to Starkville before continuing its seven-game road trip on Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. CT start at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La.

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