STARKVILLE — Mississippi State broke out the bats and the brooms Sunday at Dudy Noble Field.

The Bulldogs amassed 13 hits — including four by Jake Mangum and a two-run home run by Brent Rooker — to beat Tennessee 7-4 and complete a three-game series sweep.

Mangum went 4-for-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored for the Bulldogs (15-10, 5-1 Southeastern Conference), who totaled 46 hits and 26 runs in the series. It was the second consecutive four-hit game for Mangum.

“I am proud of our guys for this effort,” Mississippi State coach Andy Cannizaro said. “We fought hard for 27 innings. We defended the field well, pitched it well and had some really good timely hitting. This was a tremendous weekend for us. I am fired up about this weekend. I love the direction this team is headed.”

Elijah MacNamee had his first three-hit game with the Bulldogs and Brant Blaylock also had two hits.
Mississippi State erased an early 1-0 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the first inning. After Mangum led off with a single, Rooker hit his eighth home run of the season to give MSU the lead for good.

Ryan Gridley followed with a triple and scored on MacNamee’s single. MacNamee scored on an error to make it 4-1.

Tennessee (13-8, 0-6) scored single runs in the second an third innings to get within a run, but the Bulldogs responded with two in the bottom of the fourth inning and one more in the sixth.

Gridley drove in a run with a ground out and MacNamee had an RBI single in the fourth inning. Blaylock led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Mangum’s double to make it 7-3.

Mangum started on the mound and allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings. Four relief pitchers — Jacob Barton, Trysten Barlow, Riley Self and Spencer Price — combined to throw 6 1/3 solid innings after that.

Self (3-0) worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed one unearned run to earn the win. He gave up one hit and struck out two.

Price piched a scoreless ninth inning for his sixth save of the season.

Dom Thornton hit a solo home run for Tennessee, and Andre Lipcius went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Jeff Moberg and Jordan Rodgers each had two hits and scored a run.

“We looked across, and hopefully we were watching the game enough that (Mississippi State) should have educated us, because they played good baseball this weekend. I was very envious of their play this weekend as a team,” Tennessee coach Dave Serrano said. When they had opportunities to get count leverage they made our pitchers pay when they made bad pitches and they threw the ball down in the zone.”