Lexington, KY - Mississippi State dropped its opening SEC series to Kentucky as continued struggles on the mound plagued the Bulldogs in a dominating 12-3 Wildcat win.
Landon Gartman couldn't have gotten the Bulldogs off to a better start. In the first three innings of the ballgame, the Memphis transfer allowed only one baserunner on a walk and struck out seven Kentucky hitters.
Behind Gartman's dominant start, the Mississippi State offense jumped to an early lead with two home runs from Hunter Hines. The sophomore launched his 9th and 10th homers of the season. He hit a solo shot off Kentucky starter Tyler Bosma to dead center in the 2nd, and he followed a 10-pitch at-bat that ended in a walk by Luke Hancock with a 2-run blast on a popup down the right field line that got pushed over by the wind.
“I thought he was really good. That first one was a really nice swing,” Head Coach Chris Lemonis said. “He had some really nice at bats today.”
Gartman's dominance didn't last long as he walked Kentucky 3rd baseman Jace Felter to begin the fourth and then plunked the 2nd baseman, Emile Pitre. The Wildcats evened the ball game back up with a 3-run jack from Hunter Gilliam, the right fielder who scored the game-winning run in last night's game.
The Bulldogs had a chance to get some of those runs right back in the top of the fifth as Lane Forsythe led off with a walk and Bryce Chance reached on a 2-out error, but they couldn't cash in. Righty Ryan Hagenow relieved Bosma with two outs, and the Bulldogs pinch-hit Ross Highfill for Luke Hancock due to injury, and the freshman catcher was sat down on three pitches.
“Luke’s back tightened up on him. We took him out being that it was so cold,” Lemonis said.
Gartman went off the rails in the bottom of the fifth and allowed Kentucky to pull ahead. The righty finished with four walks and two HBPs on the day, and he quickly loaded the bases on a walk, a hit, and a hit batter. Felker cashed in on the bases-loaded opportunity and droved in two runs on a single, and after Gartman issued another walk to reload the bases, his day was done.
Freshman left-hander Brock Tapper was put in a tight situation with the bases loaded and no outs, and a single by Pitre plated two more Kentucky runs. Tapper struck out three hitters to get the Bulldogs out of it, but Highfill had surrendered a pass ball to get another Wildcat run across, putting the Bulldogs down 8-5.
Hagenow proceeded to shut down the Diamond Dog offense over the next four innings, and he struck out five hitters and he gave up just one hit, a double by Hines to lead off the sixth. The Bulldogs managed just five hits in the game, and three of them came off Hines’ bat. Tapper walked a hitter in the 6th, and a base hit by Kentucky catcher Devin Burkes turned into a little league home run as Colton Ledbetter failed to field the ball, causing it to go skip to the centerfield wall.
Freshman righty Logan Forsythe pitched the 7th for the Bulldogs and gave up a two run homer to the 1st baseman James McCoy to extend the Kentucky lead to 12-3. Another freshman in righty Will Gibbs pitched a scoreless frame in the 8th, the first zero on the board since the 3rd, but it was too little too late with the Bulldogs in a nine-run whole and Hagenow dominating on the mound.
The Bulldogs are now 0-2 to begin SEC play, and have lost their last 13 SEC games dating back to last season. Mississippi State will look to avoid a sweep in their first SEC series with lefty Graham Yntema on the mound tomorrow. Righty Zach Lee is expected to go for Kentucky.
“It’s two for this team. Last year is last year,” Lemonis said if the SEC losing streak. “We lost a tough game last night. “That game could have gone either way. This game could have gone either way. We just let go of it in the fourth inning.”
