No. 18 Mississippi State won three and lost two in the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga. on the weekend to move to 16-4 on the season. Saturday’s win over Syracuse marked head coach Jay Miller’s 900th career win.The Bulldogs plated four runs, and junior Kelsey Nurnberg threw a complete game shutout to defeat North Carolina State in the opener on Friday.
State started the scoring early when Chelsea Bramlett scored on a wild pitch after singling, stealing second and advancing to third on a Nakita Boyce sacrifice bunt.
The final runs of the day came in Mississippi State’s half of the sixth when Hayle Guess scored Boyce on an RBI triple, followed by an RBI sacrifice fly by Bures.
State dropped a 2-0 decision to No. 11 Michigan in the nightcap. Misty Flesher picked up her second loss of the season, despite giving up only two runs on six hits in a complete-game effort.
The game was scoreless until the seventh inning when Michigan broke through with two runs. Those two would prove to be enough, as the Bulldogs had no answer for Michigan starter Nikki Nemitz.
Nemitz allowed no runs on three hits through seven innings.Nemitz also helped her team at the plate, leading off the seventh with a walk and scoring the go-ahead run.
Miller said he felt pitching was the Bulldogs’ strength in Friday’s games.
“We received tremendous pitching from Kelsey and Misty,” he said. “I hate that Misty threw a game like she did against Michigan and lost, but that’s how the game is. I thought we played well defensively, but we have to be more aggressive at the plate.”
Saturday’s first game saw Mississippi State defeat Syracuse by an 8-2 score. Elizabeth Woolven held the Orange hitless through five innings in relief of Nurnberg.
The Bulldogs jumped out early, tallying three runs in each of the first two innings. The Orange came back with two runs in the bottom of the second off Nurnberg, but that proved to be all the scoring they would do.
Bures went 2-of-3 at the plate with two RBIs and a run scored. Additionally, Guess had a two RBI double and scored a run.
In the final game on Saturday, State dropped a 5-2 decision that took eight innings to complete. Nurnberg pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing four runs in the top of the eighth inning. The Bulldogs picked up two runs on RBI hits by Chelsea Bramlett and Ali Bainbridge, but the two were not enough to extend the game.
“I’m still frustrated a little bit by the way we are swinging the bats,” Miller said of Saturday’s games. “We didn’t manage our plate appearances too well today, and we left a lot of runners on base. We had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on, so we have to work hard and learn from these games.”
MSU defeated Massachusetts 3-2 Sunday afternoon in a thrilling final-inning comeback. Woolven picked up her third win of the season, and Nurnberg earned her second save.
“We had a great team effort. Elizabeth shut them down and gave us an opportunity to come back,” Miller said. “Our team did a nice job of battling and fighting. The bottom part of the order gave us some big hits in that last inning, and Chelsea came up big once again. This win will help us down the road because UMass is a very good team that makes a regional every year.