States Drops SEC Tournament Matchup With LSU

Tuesday, May 22

Hoover, Ala. (Hoover Met)

4:30 PM

Mississippi State

31-25

LSU

34-23

Mississippi State

LSU

States Drops SEC Tournament Matchup With LSU

May 22, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

HOOVER, Ala. – Mississippi State built an early 3-0 lead but could not maintain the momentum and fell to LSU 8-5 in an opening-round game of the SEC Baseball Tournament on Tuesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Jake Mangum, Rowdey Jordan, Tanner Allen, Dustin Skelton and Josh Hatcher each had multiple hits for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs stranded a pair of base runners in each of the first two innings, before breaking on top 2-0 on a two-run double by Justin Foscue in the third inning.

MSU then had a chance for another big inning in the fourth inning but only scratched for one run before leaving the bases loaded. The Bulldogs loaded the bases on three walks, but the only score came on a Tanner Allen sacrifice fly.

Hunter Stovall would walk to reload the bases before a ground ball out ended the inning.

LSU (34-23) got on the board in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Zach Watson and an RBI-single from Antoine Duplantis.

The Bulldogs then built a 4-2 lead on an RBI-single by Allen in the sixth inning.

The Tigers then used another sacrifice fly by Beau Jordan and an RBI-single by Brandt Broussard to tie the game in the home half of the inning.

LSU took the lead for good with a pair of scores in the seventh inning and added two insurance scores in the eighth inning.

The Bulldogs got the final run in the eighth inning on an RBI-single by Mangum but left two runners on. The Bulldogs also stranded two runners in the ninth inning after singles by Elijah MacNamee and Marshall Gilbert.

Konnor Pilkington drew the start for the Bulldogs before being lifted with two outs in the fifth inning. JP France (4-4) pitched 1.1 innings in relief and took the loss. Zach Neff, Blake Smith, Cole Gordon and Riley Self followed France to the mound.

Duplantis finished with three of LSU's 12 hits. Devin Fontenot (2-0) got the win, while Todd Peterson pitched the final two innings for his fifth save.