Khal Stephen rolls Rebels in 8-0 shutout Friday night
OXFORD, Miss. – In the middle of what was shaping out to be a pitcher’s duel to start the Mississippi State/Ole Miss series, the Rebels would blink.
The Bulldogs had one hit off of Riley Maddox in the first 5.0 innings until David Mershon got a leadoff bunt single. That sparked a seven-run inning for State that would allow Khal Stephen to stay in cruise control and give the Diamond Dawgs a dominating 8-0 victory in Oxford.
Stephen delivers fourth-straight gem in Friday rout
Very similarly to MSU’s Friday night outing a week ago against Georgia, MSU got almost all of its offense in one inning and it was plenty for Stephen. The Bulldog starter threw a second-straight shutout with one of the best games of his career.
Stephen nearly went the distance in the game with 8.0 innings of three-hit baseball and shutout the Rebels. He had nine strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter as he has now thrown 18.2 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to his Florida start three weeks ago.
Just under a year after Stephen lasted just 2.0 innings and gave up eight runs on eight hits against Ole Miss in Oxford with Purdue, Stephen got his redemption.
“Obviously, it’s in the back of your mind a little bit. Just come out and compete and do all that you can,” Stephen said. “Fastball command and pressuring their at bats and having a good slider coming off of that was really good (Friday).”
Behind Stephen was Tyson Hardin who would work around a two-out error to retire the Rebels with a scoreless ninth and two strikeouts.
State’s pitching was dominant from start to finish with the Rebels managing to get just two players in scoring position the entire night. Twice in the game, Stephen retired nine-straight batters in a row and had 11-straight retired from the fifth inning until two outs into the eighth.
Mershon gives another spark
Both Stephen and Maddox had things rolling through 5.0 innings until Mershon shook it up. The bunt gave way to four-straight hits from MSU hitters. After Mershon’s leadoff single, Dakota Jordan would deliver the first big hit of the game with a line drive home run that landed over the wall in center field for his 15th home run of the year.
That homer took a 1-0 lead out to 3-0 and the Diamond Dawgs were off to the races.
“Mershon is the heart of the team, in my opinion,” Jordan said. “When he gets on, that gives me so much more confidence to go up there and score him.”
Following the home run, Hunter Hines and Connor Hujsak singled and Bryce Chance would drive in a run on a groundout. Logan Kohler and Amani Larry would drive in a run each on a single and groundout respectively and then Mershon broke it open again with a two-run single.
All total, it was seven runs on seven hits for State and the team had a chance to run rule but would still win comfortably.
There wasn’t much from State offensively outside of that inning but eight hits and eight runs were plenty. Mershon and Jordan had two hits and two RBI each in the game with Kohler finishing with two RBI also. Kohler was just 1-for-4, but coach Chris Lemonis talked after the game of the work he’s put in to get back up to speed.
“Every time I come into Palmeiro (Center) he’s hitting. He’s spent a lot of time with coach (Jake) Gautreau,” Lemonis said. “He’s been a good player his whole career, just had a slow start to the season. Usually that evens out and I think that’s what we’re starting to see.”
Up Next
State (22-12, 7-6 SEC) are 10 wins over .500 for the first time since 2021 and the Diamond Dawgs have a chance to take an eighth-straight series against the Rebels when the two teams meet at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday with a game on ESPN 2.
Jurrangelo Cijntje will go up against Rebel LHP Liam Doyle.
“You should feel good about yourself, but they know they have work to do (Saturday),” It’s a rivalry game. They’re going to come out with the same energy tomorrow and they have a really good arm throwing tomorrow so we’re going to have to come out again and fight and claw and do everything that we can. It should give you a little bit of confidence going to bed tonight.”
