Ammon's no-hitter highlights No. 12 Bulldogs' two-game sweep of Southeast Missouri
In the final tuneup before a monster showdown with the No. 1 team in the nation, there would be no overlooking the midweek opponent for Mississippi State.
The No. 12 Bulldogs welcomed in Southeast Missouri for a two-game matchup at Nusz Park and the team made quick work of the Red Hawks. Over the course of 12 innings, State pitching gave up just four runs, two walks and 16 strikeouts while giving up no runs in a two-game sweep.
The dominant pitching outing began with Laila Ammon tossing a no-hitter to move to 7-0 on the season. In the first game of two, Ammon’s only base runner in the game reached via an error as she led the Bulldogs to a 9-0, run rule win in five innings.
Ammon had a ground ball to the shortstop with two outs in the first inning that was scored a throwing error and then retired 13-straight batters in her strong start. Along with her overpowering the SEMO hitters, State’s offense was alive and well at the plate.
The Bulldogs put seven runs on the board in the opening inning as the team had six hits and got run producers from Des Rivera and Morgan Stiles to build a 7-0 advantage early. Rivera extended that lead with another RBI single in the second while Nadia Barbary put a cherry on top with her eighth home run of the season to leadoff the fourth.
Stiles, Barbary and Rivera all had two hits in the win with Stiles and Rivera driving in two runs.
Bulldogs complete sweep with another dominant outing in the circle
While the offense slowed a bit in game two, the pitching performances didn’t Peja Goold split seven innings with Delainey Everett and Alyssa Faircloth to notch the eighth shutout of the season and the second of the day. A 4-0 win would seal up another win.
The home run ball got the Bulldogs going early as they connected on a shot over the left field wall from Gabby Schaeffer in the second inning for a 1-0 lead. Rivera hit her third RBI of the day in the third with a sacrifice fly followed by a two-out, RBI single from Abigail Stevens and State had some distance in a 3-0 game.
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Barbary’s fielder’s choice groundout in the sixth got another run home, but the Bulldogs were already well on their way to the win.
The Bulldogs plethora of options on the pitching staff continued to flex their muscles in this game. Goold pitched the first three innings and gave up two hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Everett earned her first win of the season as she came in and pitched 2.0 innings with two hits and a walk as well. Alyssa Faircloth grabbed her first save of the season throwing the final 2.0 innings without allowing a base runner and she struck out five batters.
Over the weekend Faircloth became the fastest player to reach 100 strikeouts in school history as she had done it in just over 55.0 innings. She has now struck out 111 in her first 60.0 frames as she heads into SEC play with just 12 walks to go along with that.
The Bulldogs (26-2) continue their best start in school history and now take that nine-game winning streak into the beginning of the conference slate. With that in mind, there will be no better way to test themselves than to do it against the No. 1 team in the country as Tennessee comes to town this weekend.
The series begins on Friday night at home at 6 p.m. with a Saturday matchup at 2 p.m. and the series finale Sunday at Noon. All three games can be seen on SEC Network +.
