BASEBALL
For the first time since 2010, the SEC Tournament’s top seeds experienced an 0-4 day. No. 5 seed Mississippi State topped 4-seed Texas A&M on Wednesday night, 5-3.
Mississippi State took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning. It became a 3-0 inning in the 3rd when David Mershon hit a 2-run homer, scoring Bryce Chance.
Texas A&M answered with 1 run in the bottom of the 3rd. The Aggies tied things up with 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning.
In the top of the 9th inning, Texas A&M’s Chris Cortez retired his first batter. Then things started to unravel.
Chance was hit by a pitch on a 1-0 count. Mershon, the next batter, was plunked on a 3-2 count, giving the Bulldogs 2 runners on with 1 out.
The Aggies made a pitching change, bringing on first-team All-SEC left-hander Evan Aschenbeck to face Hunter Hines. MSU loaded the bases as Hines reached due to a throwing error by Aschenbeck.
With two down, Connor Hujsak singled up the middle off of Aschenbeck to plate Chance and Mershon. Both runs were unearned on Cortez’s final line due to the error.
Tyler Davis relieved Nate Dohm in the bottom of the 9th. He retired the Aggies in order, picking up the save in the 5-3 victory. Dohm was the winning pitcher, tossing 2 scoreless innings. Starter Khal Stephen went 5 innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4 over 88 pitches.
Starkville Regional motivates Mississippi State
Mississippi State came to Hoover as an expected NCAA Tournament team. The Bulldogs, though, aren’t just happy with making the field of 64.
MSU wants to host a Starkville Regional. With wins over Ole Miss and Texas A&M, the Bulldogs are up to 38-19 overall with the No. 19 RPI.
Skipper Chris Lemonis let Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill know that he follows media projections for the top 16 national seeds.
The Bulldogs will find out for sure on Selection Monday. They have the chance to add a few more wins between now and then.
MSU will play 8-seed Vanderbilt in Thursday’s finale, a winner’s bracket game. Texas A&M faces 1-seed Tennessee in Game 10, an elimination game that is second on Thursday’s slate.