No. 8 Mississippi State lost two of three to No. 5 Auburn over the weekend, dropping to third in the SEC West at 25-7-1 and 10-4 in the conference.
Game 1
MSU rode the pitching of starter Paul Maholm and closer Jonathan Papelbon to a 4-2 victory to remain undefeated in Friday night games.
Maholm struck out eight batters in his seven innings of work while giving up two runs off eight hits. Papelbon denied the Tigers a chance to come back by retiring six of the seven batters he faced, three via strikeout.
“It’s been 14 or so days since I’ve pitched,” Papelbon said. “I was just really eager to get back out there to prove to the team and prove to Auburn what I’ve got.”
Auburn got on the board in the top of the second when Josh Bell recorded the first of his two RBIs with a single through the left side. The hit would have scored two runs if MSU centerfielder Joseph Hunter had not gunned down a runner at the plate earlier in the inning.
State answered in the bottom of the fourth when Matthew Brinson walked and Brad Corley got beaned. After the runners advanced to second and third on Brent Lewis’ groundout, Brinson scored on Craig Tatum’s groundout to tie the game. The next batter, Thomas Berkery, put the Bulldogs on top 2-1 with a single to left field that scored Corley.
MSU nearly added another run in the same inning when Matthew Maniscalco popped a ball up in the infield. AU pitcher Eric Brandon stood under it but backed off as he saw first baseman Karl Amonite closing in. Neither man attempted to catch the ball. After it fell to the ground, Amonite’s throw beat Berkery to the plate as he tried to score from second.
After the Tigers tied the game in the sixth with Josh Bell’s homerun, the Bulldogs responded in their half of the inning with two runs. With two outs, Berkery was hit by a pitch. Hunter cranked a triple to the left-centerfield wall to score his teammate. Maniscalco followed with a single up the middle that brought Hunter home for the 4-2 lead.
“I go out there every week thinking I’m going to win,” said Maholm, who collected his sixth straight victory. “There’s no doubt in my mind. I just go out there confident, and I think the rest of the team catches on to it.”
Game 2
Auburn pitching allowed 12 hits and six walks Saturday but stranded 14 Bulldog base runners on its way to an 8-5 series-tying victory.
“Any time you leave 14 guys on base, it’s good and bad,” head coach Ron Polk said. “Good: we got them on base. Bad: we didn’t knock them in.”
Auburn rallied in the top of the third to score four. With two outs and a man on third, Tug Hulett tripled to right-center to score the game’s first run. After Bobby Huddleston walked, Amonite ripped a double that scored Hulett and put Huddleston on third. Scott Schade drove in two runs on the next pitch with a single up the middle to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
MSU tied the game in its at-bat, beginning the bottom of the third with a Maniscalco solo shot. After a sacrifice fly cut the deficit to two, J. B. Tucker smashed a two-RBI single to left to even the score at 4-4.
Auburn plated three in the seventh when Hulett delivered an RBI-single and Amonite homered over the right field wall with a man on base.
“Right now, it’s probably what anybody would think. One team wins one, one team wins the other, and now we’ll see who wins the third one,” Polk said.
Game 3
Two Auburn round-trippers provided six of seven runs as it won Sunday’s rubber match. Colby Paxton, who pitched with Maholm in high school, picked up the 7-3 win for the Tigers.
The Bulldogs failed to capitalize on base hits again, earning three runs off 14 hits. Steve Gendron gave his second consecutive three-hit performance, but, like Saturday, none of those hits brought in runs.
MSU got on the board early when Brinson took a ball the opposite way for a double down the leftfield line to score Gendron.
Auburn took the lead in the fourth when Chuck Jeroloman belted a two-run blast that the home crowd thought was a foul ball. In the fifth, Bell hit his second homerun of the weekend, but this time with the bases loaded to give the Tigers a 7-1 advantage.
“We made some great plays early in the game and kept their runners off base,” Gendron said. “Then, they hit that grand slam, and they started making great plays after that.”
The Bulldogs left 11 runners on base, which again proved to be the deciding factor, as they out-hit the Tigers 14-10. “We had no problem hitting the ball. We lacked the key hits that help the good teams win it,” Gendron said. “Auburn got their fair share of key hits, and that’s why they won two out of three this weekend.”
LSU swept Mississippi to stay on top of the SEC. Auburn’s series-clinching victory put the Tigers in second place by half a game over the Bulldogs. Two games separate the three teams.
Categories:
Tigers take two
Jon Hillard / The Reflector
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April 14, 2003
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