The Mississippi State softball team hosted the Lady Rebels last weekend and came back from a 0-1 series deficit to win a crucial SEC series. With wins in games two and three, the Bulldogs moved to 19-18 on the season and 7-6 in SEC play. Also, head coach Jay Miller picked up his 999th career victory in the series clincher.
MSU fell in the first game of the series as they managed only six hits to the Rebels’ 11. Starting pitcher Misty Flesher gave up four runs through three innings which was more than enough for the Rebels as they blanked State 6-0.
A bright spot for the Bulldogs was sophomore pitcher Kylie Vry, who came on in relief and pitched the final four innings giving up only one earned run. At the plate, Shelby Fisher and Heidi Shape each had two hits. However, State left 11 runners on base, and Miller said his team could not come through with much needed hits.
“We left a lot of runners on base, and Ole Miss did a good job of taking advantage when they got runners in scoring position,” Miller said. “We hit the ball, but we just didn’t get the hits at the right time.”
Game two went in reverse for the Lady Dawgs as they evened the series and held the Rebels scoreless, defeating them 3-0. Sophomore pitcher Stephanie Becker moved to 5-3 on the year pitching a four-hit shutout. Becker was down three balls and no strikes to the first batter of the game but battled back to record her first of seven strikeouts. From then on, the game belonged to Becker.
“I was trying too hard to paint the corners, so I realized I just needed to come back strong and work on making the count even,” Becker said. “I felt good in the circle just working on hitting my spots, and it worked out well the rest of the game.”
Miller said Becker’s performance was just what the Bulldogs needed.
“I thought Stephanie did a great job,” Miller said. “She kept those leadoff runners off base, didn’t walk a batter and was in command all game.”
The Bulldogs struck early at the plate scoring their first run on an error by the Rebels. In the third inning, after back-to- back walks, Courtney Nesbit grounded out to move the runners to second and third. Sam Lenahan then hit a sacrifice fly followed by an RBI single by Shape to score the final two runs for the Dawgs.
Nesbit and Lenahan were the stars at the plate on Sunday as the Dawgs ousted the Rebels 9-3. Lenahan blasted her sixth home run of the year, while Nesbit hit her team leading 8th home run and tied her career high driving in five runs. Nesbit was only a triple short of the cycle as she was seeing the ball well at the plate.
“I was trying to see the ball and hit it hard, and I got some hits to fall,” Nesbit said. “I went with what she had been throwing me, and I got some big hits to help us get a big series win against our rival.”
Ole Miss struck first scoring a run in the top of the first inning, but the Bulldogs battled back scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning. Nesbit and Jessica Cooley each had two RBIs in the inning to give the pitching staff all the run support it would need.
Becker gave up three runs (two earned) through three innings, and Vry pitched the final four innings, allowing only one hit to earn the win and give the Dawgs the series. Miller was pleased with his team’s play over the weekend.
“I thought Kylie did a really good job shutting them down today,” Miller said. “When you get games here at home where you have the opportunity to win, you need to do that to stay on top of teams in the SEC.”
After a mid-week game at Southern Miss on Wednesday, the Bulldogs have the opportunity to get a few more big wins at home as they host the Auburn Tigers for Super Bulldog Weekend. They kick things off Friday night at 5:00. Game two is Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and the final game begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
