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No. 11 Ole Miss Falls to No. 5 Mississippi State 3-1, in Series Opener
The No. 11 Ole Miss baseball team fell 3-1 to No. 5 Mississippi State Friday night at Dudy Noble Stadium. MSU’s Dakota Hudson (4-1) tossed a complete game to give the home team the win in the series opener.
Ole Miss (20-6, 2-5 SEC) scored in the opening inning for the 13th time, but Mississippi State (19-7-1, 5-2 SEC) tallied runs in the first, sixth and seventh innings to take the low-scoring affair.
J.B. Woodman knocked in the lone run for Ole Miss, while Tate Blackman, Connor Cloyd and Michael Fitzsimmons added hits as well. Brady Bramlett (4-2) went 5.1 innings and allowed two runs on six hits. Sophomore Will Stokes pitched effectively out of the bullpen for 2.2 innings. The only batter to reach against Stokes was due to an error.
Reid Humphreys led the Bulldogs at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Fellow outfielder Jake Mangum added two hits and two runs as well. Hudson completed the contest on the rubber, limiting the Rebels to four hits.
Ole Miss wasted no time striking first, plating a run in the opening frame. Will Golsan took one for the team as the leadoff hitter was plunked by the second pitch of the ballgame. Errol Robinson reached on an error to put runners on the corners for Woodman, who found a hole in the right side of the infield to score Golsan. However, the Bulldogs countered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning. A base hit by Humphreys tied the game back up at one run apiece.
After each team scored in the first, the game turned into a pitcher’s duel. Hudson retired 10 straight Rebels before Blackman and Fitzsimmons smacked singles in the fifth. Ole Miss threatened, but MSU got out of the inning. Meanwhile, Bramlett kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard for four consecutive innings.
Another Humphrey’s single, his third of the game, gave Mississippi State its first lead of the game. With two runners on and only one out, Stokes came in from the bullpen to stop the damage. The sophomore reliever did his job, getting back-to-back outs to keep the deficit at one, 2-1, through six innings of play.
A pair of Rebel miscues gave the Bulldogs another run in the seventh. With the two-run cushion, Hudson kept the Ole Miss bats in-check to give his team the victory.
Ole Miss will look to even the series tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. CT. Junior Chad Smith will get the ball for the Rebels, squaring off against MSU’s Austin Sexton. Fans can catch the rivalry on SECN+ as well as the Ole Miss IMG Sports Network.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports