The Mississippi State baseball team suffered a tough setback Wednesday night, dropping a 7-6 decision to the Memphis Tigers.
The Diamond Dogs (6-2) dropped their second game of the year in the last inning after making a courageous comeback and will look forward to a busy weekend as they host Connecticut and Lipscomb in a three-team tournament.
A two-hour rain delay at rain-soaked Dudy Noble Field caused a sluggish start as the Bulldogs struck first in scoring but failed to get much offensive production over the course of the game. Trey Porter doubled in Adam Frazier to take an early 1-0 lead, but Memphis responded with three runs of their own in the third inning including a pair of unearned runs that would prove costly.
Daryl Norris, who collected a pair of RBIs, said a slow offensive start plagued the team.
“We were watching a lot of good pitches and weren’t having good at-bats,” Norris said. “We swung at a lot of balls and took a lot of strikes, and it wasn’t going for us in the beginning.”
Memphis’ Chase Joiner earned his first collegiate start and threw seven innings while giving up two runs and six hits while striking out a career-high eight batters.
MSU would plate another run in the fourth as Brandon Woodruff drove in Wes Rea to get within one run before Memphis scored three unanswered to take a 6-2 advantage.
The Dogs would find one more opportunity for late-game heroics in the eighth inning. With two on, Norris ripped a double to left field scoring Porter and Mitch Slauter. Rea, who walked-off last weekend’s win over Kansas, would then deliver again with his first career home run in Maroon and White – a two-run home run to tie the game at six.
Despite his game-tying homerun, Rea was disappointed with the loss.
“Stuff like that doesn’t matter to me when we lose a ball game,” Rea said. “He (Joiner) was doing what he was supposed to do, and we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do.”
Memphis would plate the game-winning run in the top of the ninth as a catcher’s interference call was made with the bases loaded. One more rally from the Dogs in their final at-bat fell short as Memphis sealed a 7-6 win.
Head coach John Cohen expressed mixed emotions about his team’s performance.
 ”I’m really pleased that our kids came and fought back,” Cohen said.  “But they were not locked in on the early part of the game with the two-and-a-half-hour delay, and that’s pretty disappointing.”
Senior Caleb Reed (0-2) took the loss on the mound as he threw the final inning and gave up one run with two strike outs.
The Dogs will have to rebound quickly as they get set to host Connecticut and Lipscomb this weekend.
“We have to put this one behind us and get ready,” Rea said. “We can’t sit and mope over this one tomorrow. We’ll have to get past it and get ready for this weekend.”
Connecticut, who made a Super Regional appearance in last year’s NCAA tournament, is off to a slow 2-4 start after playing stiff competition early on. Lipscomb enters the weekend with an even 4-4 record on the season and will be no easy test for MSU.
“You’re not really playing an opponent; you’re playing a game. When you make mental mistakes like we did in this game, the game is going to beat you every time, not the opponent,” Cohen said. “We have got to get better. This is going to be a very good club when they all learn to focus at a high level.”
The Dogs will open up with Connecticut on Friday at 2:30 p.m. followed by a double header on Saturday before closing the weekend with Lipscomb at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.