Mississippi State (27-13-1, 10-8) baseball looked to bounce back from a home sweep coming at the hands of Texas A&M (32-8, 12-6) in their road series against LSU (27-13, 10-8). 

The Bulldogs did just that, taking games one and two in Baton Rouge by scores of 12-8 and 2-1. They would not get the sweep, losing game three on Sunday 11-8.

It was another rough outing for Bulldog ace Dakota Hudson. He gave up twelve hits and seven earned runs in 6.1 innings pitched. However, he was credited with the win.

After Hudson, Ryan Rigby took the mound for 1.1 inning. He gave up one hit and one run. Reid Humphreys closed the game for MSU, giving up no hits and no runs in 1.1 innings pitched and earn ing the save. 

MSU Head Coach John Cohen talked about the defense after the game.

“Dakota really gutted it out for us,” Cohen said. “He kept eating innings. We will play defense better than this in the future. However, we made some plays that we had to have.”

Nathaniel Lowe led the Bulldogs on offense in game one. He had three hits to go along with an astounding six RBI. The Bulldogs ended up with 13 hits in 38 total at bats. 

Whereas game one was a shootout, game two was a defensive battle. With  only three total runs in the game, both starting pitchers played well. MSU’s Austin Sexton came up big, earning four strikeouts and giving up only one run. 

Sexton would come away with the win, giving up only five hits. Alex Lange pitched a complete game for the Tigers and only gave up one earned run and one unearned run. He had seven strikeouts and only gave up four hits. 

Cohen praised the pitching in game two. 

“Austin had such great movement on his breaking ball tonight,” Cohen said. “We knew if he could keep it in the strike zone, he would get a lot of quick outs.”

Only three players for MSU got hits Saturday, Jake Mangum, Jack Kruger and Gavin Collins. Mangum and Kruger scored the two runs for MSU. Kruger also had one RBI and two hits. Humphreys had the other RBI. 

Game three was another high-scoring affair. This time in LSU’s favor, however. It was a rough day for the MSU pitching staff as they put nine pitchers on the mound Sunday. Starter Konnor Pilkington got the loss and gave up four runs, three of which were earned in his 3.1 innings pitched. Ryan Rigby aslo struggled in relief, giving up another two runs in 1.1 innings played. 

MSU did have a good day offensively, with 15 hits for the team as a whole and eight runs for the Bulldogs. Magnum recorded three hits and two RBI, and Humphreys had one hit and three RBI. 

Cohen said their defense was not up to par compared to other games.

“We didn’t make enough plays defensively to win the game,” Cohen said. “We were great in the field Friday and Saturday. In this game, we just had a couple of plays that we didn’t make.”

MSU will travel to Pearl, Mississippi tonight to play in the Governor’s Cup against Ole Miss. The Bulldogs have already beaten the Rebels in Starkville, taking that series two games to one. However, this is a special game that the two teams play every year in addition to their weekend series and will not count toward in-conference records. 

First pitch is at 7 p.m. and will air on the SECNetwork, which is channel 26 in the on-campus dorms. It is considered a non-conference game. After that MSU will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to take on the Crimson Tide over the weekend.