Mississippi State University remains tied for first place in the SEC after dropping both games of its double header against Auburn University on Saturday. 
No. 13 MSU (30-16, 14-7 SEC) lost game one of the double header against the Auburn Tigers (32-14, 14-7 SEC) by a score of 17-8. They then played a national televised game three of the series and dropped that game as well by a score of 5-3. 
MSU did beat Auburn Friday night, but the two loses today leaves them tied with the Tigers for first place in the SEC. The series loss for MSU means if Auburn and MSU are tied for first at the end of the year, Auburn will be the one seed at the SEC tournament. 
Head coach Andy Cannizaro said he told the team not to lose sight of everything after the game. 
“It is just one day, that is exactly what I told our guys,” Cannizaro said. “At the end of this day, let’s not lose fact that we beat Auburn yesterday. It is just one day at the ballpark, it didn’t go our way, the weekend is going to end and we are going to be tied first place in the SEC. There wasn’t anybody under the sun that thought we were going to be tied for first place after seven weeks in the SEC.”
Second baseman Hunter Stovall left last night’s game with a hand injury. Head coach Andy Cannizaro said after last night’s game that he fractured his hand and will see an orthopedic surgeon. Cannizaro said he will be out for the foreseeable future. 
Replacing Stovall in the line-up is Harrison Bragg. Bragg, a junior from Lakewood, Washington, played third base while usual third baseman Luke Alexander played second. 
Bragg made the most of his opportunity. He hit a two-run home run in the front end of the double header and in the night game, he went 3-4 from the plate and batted in one run. 
The most surprising part of Bragg’s performance yesterday was his defense. Auburn hit at him the whole game and he stepped up and made the plays and throws he needed to. He credited his defensive play to work he has gotten in with Cannizaro.  
“Just me and (Cannizaro) have been working hard,” Bragg said. “Every rep, just as hard as you can. That is what I try to do and it just felt great. Seeing the ball off the bat well.”
MSU’s problem in day game was giving up too many free bases. The pitching staff for the 17-8 loss walked eight batters and hit five more with pitches. They also threw six wild pitchers, giving runners an opportunity to advance bases for free. 
MSU already has a thin pitching staff with all the injuries they have had this season. When that happens, doubleheaders become hard to manage, especially when the team’s two starting pitchers today combined for six innings pitched.
“When you play 18 innings in a day, you need to get more than six innings out of your starting pitching,” Cannizaro said. “Those guys have done an outstanding job the last couple weeks but just didn’t get it done today.”
In game two, it was an in ability to hit runners in. Holding a team to five runs is usually enough to get MSU a win and they out hit Auburn in the night game. The difference was Auburn scored five runs on eight hits as they hit in bunches. They scored all five of their runs in the fourth inning. MSU on the other hand, only scored three runs on 13 hits and left 11 batters stranded on bases.
The MSU baseball team will take finals like every other student this week and then travel down to College Station, Texas, and take on No. 22 Texas A&M. Game one against A&M will start at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and be broadcast on ESPNU.