After a disappointing conference opener at Florida last weekend, the Diamond Dawgs responded with their first series win over Georgia since 2002.
Mississippi State won a 9-8 thriller to open the series on Friday night. After State took an early 1-0 lead, Georgia scored six runs in the fourth inning, and one in the fifth to take a commanding 7-1 lead.
The Bulldogs responded with six runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth and one in the bottom of the sixth to reclaim a one-run lead. The rally was led by Russ Sneed who went 3-for-4 in the game and drove in three runs.
“We had a battle. The one thing about it, we really recognized the strike zone a lot better tonight which caused a little bit longer of a game,” Sneed told BullDawgJunction.com. “We knew coming in that their pitchers were not throwing as many strikes and we had to do a better job of controlling the zone.”
MSU fell 7-4 in Saturday’s match as Georgia evened the series. Down 6-1, the Maroon and White tried to rally with three runs in the sixth inning, but it was all they could muster as Georgia went on to win 7-4.
Head coach John Cohen said he was disappointed in the stalling effort.
“We had a chance to come back but we didn’t have good at-bats when it counted,” Cohen said.
Mississippi State was able to clinch the series Sunday with an 11-10 win including a dramatic rally. MSU found themselves down 10-2 in the bottom of the eighth and sparked an eight-run inning. The Dawgs strung together eight consecutive hits, highlighted by a Jonathan Ogden 3-run home run and a double from Luke Adkins which drove in a pair of runs. Greg Houston earned the win on the mound and said he was proud of the way his team came back.
“It’s a great team win,” he said. “Our hitters were unbelievable the last two innings, they had great at bats. You can’t single one person out because everybody did their part.”
With the game tied at 10, Jet Butler led off the ninth with a single. Jaron Shepherd came in to run for Butler and stole second and third with two outs. Cody Freeman then singled up the middle to score Shepherd and clinch the series for MSU.
The Bulldogs (14-10, 2-4) have trailed in 21 of the 24 games they have played and come back to win 12 of them.
Cohen said he was encouraged by yet another comeback.
“I’m pleased with how our kids competed,” Cohen said. “You’re looking for anything that’s going to catapult you. You just have to survive. To take two out of three from anybody in this league at this point in time is a big, big weekend.”