Missed opportunity is on the minds of the Mississippi State University baseball team after their 3-1 loss to Louisiana State University.
The No. 13 Bulldogs (34-20, 17-11 SEC) faced off against the No. 6 LSU Tigers (37-17, 19-9 SEC) on Thursday night to begin a three game series which will determine the winner of the SEC West.
The Bulldogs got the first punch in when leadoff batter Ryan Gridley, in the first MSU at-bat of the game, hit a fastball into the Left Field Lounge for a solo home run. The junior from Milton, Georgia, is leading off for the second time since high school, with the first time coming on Tuesday night in MSU’s 10-8 win over Troy.
Gridley shared his thoughts on what he saw at the plate on the pitch he hit out of the park.
“I was sitting on a fastball, I thought 1-1 (count), leading off the game I might get one over the plate to challenge me,” Gridley said. “I just made sure I put a good swing on it.”
Besides Gridley’s home run, MSU was not able to find clutch hitting. The Bulldogs left 12 runners stranded on-base. They loaded the bases twice but were unable to capitalize, going 0-3 at the plate with the bases loaded. With runners on base, MSU was 0-13 at the plate and with runners in scoring position the Bulldogs were 0-7.
Head baseball coach Andy Cannizaro said they did a good job of getting runners in scoring position but could not pick up that big hit to win the game.
 “We just didn’t pick up the big hit when we needed it,” Cannizaro said. “That was the difference in the ball game. We defended really well, we threw enough strikes, we kept them off the scoreboard, we pitched around some guys, made some other guys beat us, we were able to get those guys out tonight.”
LSU starting pitcher Alex Lange proved why many project him to be a first round pick in the upcoming MLB draft. He pitched seven complete innings, only giving up six hits and one run. He struck out 11 of the 33 MSU batters he faced. He threw 125 pitches, 78 of which were strikes.
“It wasn’t like they had some guy standing out on the mound throwing 80 miles an hour,” Cannizaro said. ”It is a mid-90s guy with a plus breaking ball that he was landing that breaking ball all night. He is going to be a really rich kid in about three weeks.”
MSU starting pitcher Konnor Pilkington will receive the loss, but he still had a solid outing. Pilkington threw six complete innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He only struck out one batter in the 27 he faced.
MSU still has a shot at the SEC West title this weekend. They will have to win both games this weekend against LSU to then share the title with the Tigers. MSU would also need Arkansas to lose one of their two games left against Texas A&M.
The first pitch of game two is set for 6: 0 p.m. Friday night. RHP Denver McQuary is set to start on the mound for MSU. LHP Jared Poche’ is set to start for LSU.