STARKVILLE — The good news for Mississippi State was that it finally got some offense in Sunday against Vanderbilt.

The bad news was that it still wasn’t enough to keep them out of an early hole in the Southeastern Conference standings.

Connor Kaiser singled in two runs during a four-run fifth inning that propelled Vanderbilt to a 4-3 win over MSU.

Mississippi State (10-10, 0-3 SEC) was held to four runs in the series as it was swept by the Commodores (15-5, 3-0).

“It was good to get off to a fast start and have a little excitement in the dugout,” Mississippi State coach Gary Henderson said. “I feel positive about all of the pitchers who threw today. We had one difficult inning.”

That was top of the fifth inning, when Vanderbilt scored all of its runs.

Mississippi State entered the inning with a 2-0 lead, but self-destructed to allow Vanderbilt to go ahead for good. Two walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball brought in one run, and then Kaiser’s two-out single to left field plated two more to put the Commodores ahead 3-2.

Philip Clarke hit a grounder that was misplayed by MSU second baseman Hunter Stovall, which allowed another run to score.

Jordan Westburg got a run back for the Bulldogs with an RBI single in the sixth inning, but they didn’t get a runner past second base the rest of the game. Six of Mississippi State’s last 10 outs came via a strikeout.

Vanderbilt reliever Tyler Brown had six strikeouts over the last four innings to earn his second save of the season. He allowed two hits and walked one. Mason Hickman (4-0) pitched the first five innings and got the win.

Jake Mangum was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored for Mississippi State. He singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Tanner Allen in the first inning, then doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the third as the Bulldogs took their early 2-0 lead.