Bulldogs sweep Florida

Published 10:36 pm Saturday, May 19, 2018

Going up against the No.1 team in the nation didn’t faze Mississippi State’s baseball team all weekend long, as they managed to sweep the Florida Gators in their last series of the regular season, winning the final game 13-6.

It’s the first time a No. 1 team has been swept since April 3, 2016. It was a big day offensively for both teams, as they each homered twice.

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The Bulldogs started off hot, with Jake Mangum homering in the first to tie the game at one, then Elijah MacNamee going deep again a few batters later for a three-run blast.

Florida came right back in the second and Deacon Liput sent a ball flying to right field for another home run, scoring two runs. In the third, MacNamee continued his stellar day with an RBI double, and Luke Alexander later sent him home with an RBI single. State’s three-run lead was short-lived, however, as in the fourth innng Cal Greenfield sent another two-run homer out and Austin Langworthy  got an RBI single to tie things up at six.

Mississippi State would add one more run off of a fielder’s choice in the sixth inning, but they really made their mark in the eighth inning. After a bases loaded walk scored one, Hunter Stovall smacked an RBI single, MacNamee sent two more runners home with an RBI double and Justin Foscue singled for the final run.

“A lot of credit to our offense,” MSU head coach Gary Henderson said. “We had the big first inning and that got the momentum in our dugout. You normally don’t see the momentum stay with one team, but we had it throughout the last two games of the series. Our approach was great at the plate and we did a great job of bringing home runners in scoring position.”

MacNamee finished with three hits and a whopping six RBIs, Mangum had three hits and one RBI, Tanner Allen had two hits and one RBI and Stovall also finished with two hits and one RBI. The sweep puts the Bulldogs at 9-1 against top five teams this season.

“That’s a good weekend, obviously I’m really proud of our kids,” Henderson said. “Tremendous job over the weekend offensively. I thought our bullpen did a good job today. Overall, just tremendous growth and improvement for our kids offensively.”

“I think we’re playing some of our best baseball of the year, certainly our most competitive,” Henderson said. “That’s the number one team in the country and we just won three games so you have to be pretty pleased with where we are.”

Mississippi State now holds the ninth seed for the SEC tournament, and will take on LSU in the first round on Tuesday.