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Mississippi State

No. 21 Diamond Dawgs bite back in 12-2 blowout win over No. 6 Florida

3rupauk8_400x400by: Robbie Faulk03/31/24RobbieFaulkOn3
jurrangelo cijntje5
Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje

After a devastating Friday night loss for No. 21 Mississippi State against the No. 6 Gators of Florida, the Diamond Dawgs bounced back in a big way on Saturday.

Behind a season-high five home runs and Jurrangelo Cijntje’s dominant start, State built a big lead and held on to it this time in a 12-2 blowout victory.

Dakota Jordan and Connor Hujsak each hit two homers in the game and the Bulldogs got another from David Mershon. State pounded out 14 total hits with Jordan going 3-for-5 with two RBI, a double and two home runs. Hujsak was also 3-for-5 but he drove in six total runs on a double and two homers.

Hunter Hines added a 2-for-4 game in the win as every Bulldog hitter collected a base knock.

After falling behind 1-0 for the second-straight game, State’s offense would explode in the fourth. Mershon hit his second home run of the season to lead off the inning and Jordan followed, but the real damage began with two outs.

State got three-straight hits after a Bryce Chance walk as Nate Chester, Johnny Long and Amani Larry drove in three more runs to build the lead to 5-1.

Over the next two innings, State kept the pedal down. Jordan came back up in the fifth and hit his second-straight home run. Hines would single after that and Hujsak would drive one over the center field wall for an 8-1 lead.

Hujsak drove in three more in the sixth on a pop up that fell in between three Gators and he added one more in the ninth with his solo home run to left field.

Unlike Friday night, State’s pitching staff would hold that lead. Cijntje (5-1) was fantastic in his 7.0 innings with five hits, two runs scattered, two walks and eight strikeouts. Tyson Hardin came in and finished the job as he threw 2.0 frames, gave up one hit, no runs, one walk and struck out three.

State (19-9, 4-4 SEC) will go for the series on Sunday at Noon against the Gators and it will be a battle. Florida will throw All-American Jac Caglianone (3-0, 1.65) in the matchup while State has yet to announce a starter.

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