Jun. 4—STARKVILLE — Samford’s Max Pinto sent the first pitch of the ballgame over the right field wall, but the No. 4 seed Bulldogs couldn’t keep up with Mississippi State’s bats on Friday afternoon.
No. 1 seed Mississippi State beat No. 4 seed Samford, 8-4, in the regional opener at Dudy Noble Field. With the win, Mississippi State (41-15) advances to the winner’s bracket and will play the winner of No. 2 VCU and No. 3 Campbell on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Samford will play the loser of VCU-Campbell on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Mississippi State’s Will Bednar (7-1) started the game on the mound and gave up a solo home run to Pinto on his first pitch. Following the home run, however, he settled in and retired 12 of the next 13 batters to give MSU a spark.
“It’s a little bit of a shock to have the first pitch you throw in a regional be a home run, but I thought it was as good of a pitch as I could’ve made,” Bednar said. “He just did a good job smoking that ball. … With home runs, you just try to flush it and forget about it and focus on the next pitch.”
After retiring 10 consecutive Samford batters, Kaden Dreier led off the fifth inning with a solo home run. That was followed by a double from Taylor Garris who later came around to score.
Bednar allowed six total hits, but only allowed three runs and exited after seven innings with Mississippi State leading 6-3. He threw 117 pitches.
His offense helped with some timely hitting. Mississippi State tied the game, 1-1, in the first inning after a leadoff double from Rowdey Jordan, a single from Tanner Allen, and a RBI groundout from Kamren James.
MSU took a 4-1 lead in the second inning after James walked with the bases loaded followed by a Luke Hancock two-run single through the right side. After another Jordan double and stolen base, Allen had a RBI groundout to put MSU up 5-1 in the fourth inning.
“I thought our guys were great today and our guys did a great job with situational hitting,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “Moving a runner or getting a runner in and just making things happen with quality at-bats. We didn’t get too big.”
The Bulldogs added three more runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Brad Cumbest led off the sixth with a double and scored two batters later after deep fly balls to right field from Kellum Clark and Lane Forsythe.
Allen singled to start the seventh and after James was hit-by-pitch, Hancock recorded his third hit and third RBI of the day before a Logan Tanner sacrifice fly capped MSU’s scoring with an 8-3 lead.