Diamond Dawgs squander stellar debut from Khal Stephen in 3-2 loss

For eight innings, Mississippi State’s dominant pitching carried the team while the offense struggled to come through in situational at bats.

The tables turned in the ninth inning for State as the Diamond Dawgs had finally gotten a lead but couldn’t finish. Down to its last strike, Air Force grounded a ball by Amani Larry and scored two runs to take a 3-2 lead that would stand for a Saturday win for the visitors.

It was a bitter end to a game that was dominated by MSU pitching for eight innings. Purdue transfer starter Khal Stephen delivered a gem of a ball game in his Diamond Dawg debut, but State couldn’t back him up.

The buzzkill of an offense and relief performance from the Bulldogs put a bit of a damper on what was otherwise another step in the right direction for State pitching. Colby Holcombe had a chance to close the door and grab a big win in the ninth but he walked the first two batters.

“Just didn’t throw strikes. We’ve got to throw strikes,” head coach Chris Lemonis said of the ninth. “It’s the walks that kill you and you’ve got to come out and have confidence to throw the ball in the zone. You get runs when you don’t throw it in the zone.”

Even after the walk, Cole Cheatam got a pop up and Brooks Auger made his return from Tommy John surgery with his first outing in nearly two years as he struck out the first batter and had an 0-2 count on Chris Stallings. Going for the strikeout on 1-2, Auger would watch as the ball was singled past Amani Larry and it brought home two runs.

That would ultimately provide the winning score for the Falcons, but the game was lost in other parts of the ball game.

State scratched across two runs in the game despite having 13 runners on base. Nine of those were left stranded with another three thrown out on bases. It was the second-straight day that State had made some blunders on the basepaths.

“They were all a little different,” Lemonis said of the base running errors. “Bryce (Chance) slipped and then he pulled up, Joe (Powell) thought he saw the ball thrown over his head and Amani was reading a ball in the dirt. They all came at really tough moments. We’re a little forced right now trying to do too much instead of playing the game.”

One of the few times that the Diamond Dawgs did execute situationally was in the eighth frame. Bryce Chance led off the inning with a double, was bunted over to third base and brought in on a Ross Highfill sacrifice fly, but Holcombe and the State relievers couldn’t hold that lead for three more outs.

Stephen strong in Bulldog debut

It was a disappointing finish in what was one of the best starting performances since Will Bednar’s National Championship outing against Vanderbilt in 2021. Stephen controlled the Falcons all game long and threw 7.0 effortless frames with three scattered hits, a solo home run for the only blemish, zero walks and 11 strikeouts.

“Things went well. Strike percentage was pretty good,” Stephen said. “We were throwing a lot of fastball early and it felt like they were cheating there so we wanted to get them off balance. The slider was comfortable (Saturday).”

Until Holcombe walked a batter in the eighth inning, State had zero walks in 12.1 consecutive frames dating back to Friday night. The two walks in the ninth proved why that’s such a point of emphasis for new pitching coach Justin Parker and his staff this season.

Larry was one of the only consistent batters in the game for State on Saturday. The senior second baseman went 3-for-5 at the top of the order with hits in his last three at bats. Air Force didn’t have anyone with multiple hits and the Falcons collected just four base knocks as a team.

The loss dropped State to 1-1 on the year and they’ll fail to have a sweep in the opening weekend series for the third-straight year. The team will try to take the series on Sunday afternoon when Jurrangelo Cijintje toes the rubber at 1 p.m. at Dudy Noble Field. Fans can watch on SEC Network +.