Mississippi State falls just short in game two against LSU
A lot of teams would have laid down when faced with a 9-1 deficit against the No. 2 team in the country, but Mississippi State didn’t.
Instead, the Bulldogs fought back tooth and nail to chip away at the Tigers’ lead, and in the bottom of the ninth, they had a chance to walk it off after tossing six straight scoreless innings on the defensive end. Catcher Johnny Long wound up hitting into a grounder at first to end the game, but no mistake could be made about it – Mississippi State made it a game.
Khal Stephen drew the start for the Diamond Dawgs, and for just the second time this season, didn’t have control of his breaking ball. Without a flame-throwing fastball, LSU intended to make him pay, and the Tigers did just that. LSU put up a five spot in the first two innings against Mississippi State to jump out to an early lead, which was compounded in the third by a four spot given up by sophomore RHP Gavin Black.
“(Khal) just (had) a lack of his breaking ball,” said Lemonis. “Lack of breaking ball. And he threw a couple that were just okay, and they hung and (LSU) hit them. And they didn’t get behind in counts, and they were just on the fastball. Khal is one of our better guys. He didn’t have his stuff today, but we’re going to need him next week.”
Karson Ligon came in to play hero ball for Mississippi State, though, and did a fine job of it. After throwing his best outing of the season in midweek action against New Orleans, the Miami transfer stepped into his role on Saturday with confidence. Ligon finished with 3.1 IP, allowed only two hits and struck out a trio of Tigers en route to the longest scoreless stint of any MSU pitcher on the night. He might have had a rough start to the season, but according to Ligon, his relationship with pitching coach Justin Parker has been a huge help in getting him back to where he believes he needs to be.
“I think it was just a matter of getting my footing,” said Ligon. “I struggled with some stuff during the fall and during the spring…I’m still working on that stuff, but getting back in there and putting up some zeroes for the first time in a while, it feels pretty good.”
One particular attribute of Saturday’s game, though, was the fight that Mississippi State showed throughout its comeback efforts.
The past two seasons, that hasn’t been the case. If someone would have said that Mississippi State would have had 8 runs going into the eighth inning, most fans would have taken that number with a smile on their face. A slow start led to Mississippi State’s downfall, and head coach Chris Lemonis knows it can’t happen in tomorrow’s rubber match.
“We need a good start,” said Lemonis. “We feel like we match up (pretty well). There’s two really big pro guys going tomorrow in that game, and it’s just who wants it more. Who can compete more? You can tell it’s two pretty evenly matched teams, but we’re going to have to go out there and play better baseball.”
The rubber match is set for tomorrow at Dudy Noble Field with a 1 p.m. first pitch. The game will be aired on the SEC Network+.
