Baseball Falls Late at Mississippi State, 8-7

Saturday, March 26

Starkville, Miss.

2 p.m.

Alabama

13-11, 0

Mississippi State

15-9, 0

Alabama

Mississippi State

Baseball Falls Late at Mississippi State, 8-7

3/26/2022 6:11:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The two teams traded leads all afternoon with the Bulldogs scoring four in the ninth for the win

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Alabama baseball traded blows with Mississippi State all Saturday at Dudy Noble Field, with the Bulldogs coming out on top late, 8-7. The Bulldogs clinch the series with the win while the Crimson Tide moves to 13-11 on the season and 1-4 in Southeastern Conference play.

Mississippi State was first on the board with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Alabama came right back an inning later with a three-run sixth to take the lead. State would score one in the home half to make it a 3-3 affair before UA moved out front once again, this time with one in the seventh. The Bulldogs matched with one in the bottom of the eighth to send things to the ninth.

The ninth saw Alabama score three to take the lead before State walked it off with a four-run home half. Mississippi State reliever Jackson Fristoe (2-2) got the win while Crimson Tide reliever Hunter Hoopes (0-1) suffered the loss.

Jacob McNairy was impressive in his first weekend start of the season. The senior allowed two runs on six hits and no walks with a career-high tying seven strikeouts in his 5.0 innings of work. He was aided on offense by Tommy Seidl, Zane Denton and Andrew Pinckney, who all contributed two-hit performances with one double apiece. Seidl led the Tide in RBI with two while Pinckney added a home run to go with his team-high tying two runs scored.

From Head Coach Brad Bohannon

"The story of this game is that we've had a really tough time closing out games, both yesterday and today. We knew going into the season that we were inexperienced in the bullpen, and our two guys that actually have experience pitching in this league are Brock Guffey and Landon Green – they're both hurt right now. We battled all day but unfortunately we didn't get the job done late."

How It Happened

B4 | A two-run home run by RJ Yeager got State on the board first. (2-0, Mississippi State)
T6 | The Crimson Tide rallied for three runs, all with two down. Jim Jarvis reached on a fielder's choice and moved himself into scoring position on a wild pitch. The extra base was key as Tommy Seidl singled in the next at-bat to score Jarvis. Zane Denton followed with a double off the wall in center to knot things up at two apiece before a Dominic Tamez single one batter later scored the go-ahead run. (3-2, Alabama)
B6 | An error to start the inning would prove costly as the leadoff man came around to score two batters later thanks to a single up the middle by MSU. (3-3)
T7 | Andrew Pinckney put UA back in front with a solo home run to dead center. (4-3, Alabama)
B8 | State started the rally with a one-out single and moved that man to third on a fielding error. After a strikeout went for the second out, a wild pitch in the next at-bat allowed the man from third to score. (4-4)
T9 | The Crimson Tide posted another three-run frame to retake the lead. Pinckney led things off with a double. One out later, Caden Rose delivered a double of his own to bring in Pinckney. Jarvis continued the rally with an RBI-single up the middle to score Rose, before a Seidl double to right-center plated the Tide shortstop to add to the UA advantage. (7-4, Alabama)
B9 | State used four hits and a walk to plate four runs for the win. (8-7, Mississippi State)

Postgame Notes

Alabama's pitchers struck out 10 and have now struck out 10-or-more batters in 11 games this season.
Jacob McNairy struck out an Alabama season-high tying seven batters in today's game. It was the seventh seven-strikeout performance by a Tide arm with the most recent coming from Garrett McMillan on March 18 against Florida.
McNairy's seven strikeouts tied his career-high total. The senior also had seven punchouts in his start against Troy on March 2.
Seven of the nine starters for Alabama tallied a hit on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide totaled 10 hits in today's matchup and have recorded 10-plus hits on 14 occasions this season, including seven of the last 11 contests.
Jim Jarvis has reached base safely in 15 straight SEC games dating back to May 2 of last season against Missouri.
Owen Diodati's hitting streak ended at seven games. Across the streak, the junior batted .385 (10-26) with four doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, seven runs scored and four walks.

Game three of the weekend is scheduled for a 2 p.m. CT start on Sunday. Alabama will send sophomore left-hander Grayson Hitt to the mound with Mississippi State calling on right-handed sophomore Cade Smith. Fans can catch all the action on SEC Network.

Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabmaBSB on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook at Alabama Baseball. General athletic news can be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.