Mississippi State baseball has taken care of business in weekend action with a pair of sweeps in two series. But so far, the midweek hasn't been kind to the Diamond Dawgs. Last week State lost in Hattiesburg to a now-ranked Southern Miss 3-0. Their second go at beating a ranked Sun Belt squad didn't go much better.
The Bulldogs lost 6-5 to #21 Troy in Starkville Tuesday night. State rallied from a 5-0 deficit to tie things up after six innings. But in the top of the 9th, a solo home run gave the Trojans the winning run. State is now 6-2 on the season.
The Bulldogs loss can be summed up by runners left on base
This should've been a big offensive day for MSU baseball. They had 13 hits and four walks. Four players had extra-base hits, including a grand slam from Noah Sullivan. You'd think that team would have put up plenty of runs.
Instead, the Bulldogs ended up with just five. Why? Because they left 14 runners on base. Eight of those runners left on base were in scoring position. When this team needed a clutch hit to take control of the game, they couldn't get it, and that seems to have been an issue for the program for multiple years now.
Mississippi State baseball pitching staff was mostly brilliant
Just like with the hitting stats, State's pitching stats against Troy resulting in a loss is absurd. The Bulldogs pitchers combined for an absurd 20 strikeouts, their most in a single game since the 2021 College World Series. They walked just two batters and gave up seven hits.
Starter Jacob Pruitt was outstanding, striking out nine and allowing just one run in 4.0 innings of work. Relievers Gavin Black, Evan Siary, and Ben Davis all did their jobs too, minus an 9th inning solo shot allowed. Unfortunately, JT Schnoor couldn't relate. In the fifth inning he allowed four runs (three earned) and only managed one out. From that point, State was playing catch up. Not to put it all on him. As said, pitching can't be where the blame falls when your lineup strands 14 baserunners.
Mississippi State will now travel to Houston for the Astros Foundation College Classic where they'll take on Rice, Arizona, and Oklahoma State for some early measuring stick games.