HATTIESBURG —Mississippi State suffered a 6-3 upset loss to the South Alabama Jaguars Friday evening in the first round of the NCAA regionals.

South Alabama jumped out to an early lead in the game scoring three runs in the tops of the first inning, and the Diamond Dawgs were never able to fight their way all the way back in.

The first batter of the game, Dylan Hardy, started off the regionals with a bang as he sent the very first pitch of the game over the wall in left field to give USA a 1-0 lead.

MSU starter Cole Gordon walked the next two batters and Jaguar clean-up hitter Travis Swaggerty made him pay for it with an RBI double to right field.

Gordon retired the next three batters, but allowed the third run of the inning on a USA groundout.

MSU cut the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning on a Hunter Stovall sac fly to center, which scored Ryan Gridley.

The pitchers settled in from there, and neither team scored again until the top of the fifth when the Jaguars added three important insurance runs to their tally.

USA recored four hits in the inning, and received some help from Peyton Plumlee who walked one in the inning and allowed runners to advance with two wild pitches.

Mississippi State mounted a comeback attempt in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs, but they could never get closer and fell 6-3.

Cody Brown and Hunter Vansau each drove in a run during the sixth inning.

Mississippi state will face the University of Illinois at Chicago Saturday at  1 p.m. in an elimination game.