HOOVER, Ala. — After the rain in Hoover went away, it came back for Mississippi State.

Jace LaViolette hit a grand slam during a six-run second inning, and Texas A&M ripped Mississippi State 9-0 in a first-round game at the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament on Wednesday.

The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but pushed to Wednesday because of weather. The Aggies almost immediately brought back the thunder on a sunny morning when the first six batters of the second inning all reached base and scored. They added two more runs in the third inning and Sawyer Farr hit an RBI single in the seventh for the final margin.

“It sucks we ended this so shortly because everybody says it’s so much fun. Didn’t get to experience that. But we just came out super flat and didn’t play well enough,” Mississippi State designated hitter Noah Sullivan said.

Texas A&M (29-25) advanced to face Auburn Thursday at 11 a.m. in the single-elimination tournament. Mississippi State (34-21) had won nine of its previous 10 games coming in, but had by far its worst outing in nearly a month.

Starting pitcher Ryan McPherson was knocked out of the game after only 1 2/3 innings, and the Bulldogs’ batters only totaled six hits.

Texas A&M pitcher Ryan Prager had six strikeouts and walked two batters in 5 1/3 innings. He retired 11 of 13 batters at one point.

“Just disappointed. It feels like we played playoff baseball here now for about a month, and to come out early and not make enough pitches and plays in the second and third inning, put ourselves at that deficit, felt like it almost took that two innings to get their guys settled in, and I don’t know if he missed a spot after the second inning,” Mississippi State interim head coach Justin Parker said. “So almost kind of momentum ceased to exist there, and they had all of it, and it just made it hard for us to script back in.”

Mississippi State was No. 29 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings entering the day, and the 12th-lowest SEC team. Along with its win total, those metrics are approaching the usual cutoff lines for at-large NCAA Tournament berths. The 64-team bracket will be announced Monday.

A win or two in Hoover would have certainly bolstered Mississippi State’s NCAA Tournament resume, but Parker didn’t seem concerned about missing the tournament — or about his team suddenly cooling off after a hot stretch.

“I’m not concerned. It’s the game of baseball. We’ve played great for a month. We’ve been unbelievable early in games offensively. We’ve scored in the first inning for what seems like two to three weeks straight,” Parker said. “We’ll get back home, we’ll recommit to the weight room, take these next couple days off and try to catch our breath, and then just continue to prepare and move forward.”