STARKVILLE — Texas A&M slowed Mississippi State’s roll.

The Aggies scored three runs in the eighth inning to snap a tie, and went on to beat the Bulldogs 6-3 in the opener of a three-game Southeastern Conference series at Dudy Noble Field on Friday night.

Mississippi State (23-20, 10-9 SEC) had a four-game winning streak snapped, and lost a series opener for the first time in three weekends.

“We were competitive for seven innings and then things got away from us in the top of the eighth inning,” Mississippi State coach Gary Henderson said. “In the eighth inning, we didn’t make a couple of pitches we needed to make and a couple of plays we needed to make. Overall, we had real competitive at-bats through the first seven innings of the game.”

Mississippi State led 3-1 before Texas A&M (31-11, 10-9) started to mount a comeback.
The Aggies scored one run in the sixth inning, and then George Janca tied it with a solo home run in the seventh.

In the eighth, Allonte Wingate reached on an infield single and eventually scored the go-ahead run on a groundout by Will Frizzell. Two batters later, Janca delivered a two-run single to make it 6-3.

“On a Friday night in this league, you are normally not going to get a lot of runs. We had a lead and weren’t able to extend it,” Henderson said.

Marshall Gilbert went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs for Mississippi State, and Elijah MacNamee also had an RBI double.

Gilbert’s RBI single in the fourth inning put the Bulldogs ahead 3-1.

Konnor Pilkington drew the start and worked seven innings for the Bulldogs. He allowed five hits and three runs, all earned, with thee strikeouts and two walks.

JP France (2-2) pitched the eighth inning and took the loss. France allowed three hits and three runs, all earned, with a walk. Cole Gordon worked the ninth inning.
Kaylor Chafin (3-0) picked up the win with two innings of relief for the Aggies. Nolan Hoffman earned his eighth save.

Braden Shewmake had three of the Aggies’ nine hits. Janca had two hits, including the game-tying home run in the seventh inning. Wingate also had two hits.

The Bulldogs and Aggies will continue their series Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

LSU 5, Ole Miss 2

A late inning surge gave LSU a 5-2 win over Ole Miss on Friday.

LSU scored all of its runs from the sixth inning inning on after Ole Miss entered the sixth with a 1-0 lead.

Ole Miss (33-11, 1-9 Southeastern Conference) had just five hits after scoring 14 runs in Thursday’s opener. LSU (26-18, 10-10) had 10 hits on Friday night.

Antoine Duplantis was 3-for-5 with a triple, one RBI and a run scored for LSU. Hunter Feduccia had two hits, including a double, and drove in three runs.

Feduccia’s two-run double in the sixth inning put the Tigers ahead 2-1. Duplantis hit an RBI triple in the seventh, and Feduccia had an RBI single in the eighth.

Nick Fortes hit a solo home run for Ole Miss and finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

The teams will finish their series Saturday at 3 p.m. at Swayze Field in Oxford. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

Southern Miss 2, Old Dominion 0

Two late-inning runs and a dominant pitching performance by Nick Sandlin gave No. 15 Southern Miss a 2-0 win over Old Dominion on Friday.

Sandlin threw a complete game and a three-hit shutout for Southern Miss (30-11, 14-4 Conference USA). He walked two batters and struck out 10, while his defense turned a pair of double plays behind him.

Southern Miss scored one run in the seventh inning on an RBI double by Matthew Guidry, and another in the ninth on an RBI single by Mason Irby.

Irby had two hits, one walk and scored a run and Guidry went 3-for-4.