Georgia Southern jumps on Diamond Dawgs early, run away with 11-4 win
Mississippi State has an SEC schedule ahead that rivals any in years past and the Diamond Dawgs could not afford to have many slipups in non-conference play.
Instead, the Bulldogs have now dropped three of the last four games to Austin Peay (twice) and Georgia Southern. The Eagles got their win on Saturday of the weekend series after pounding Bulldog pitching for 12 hits and shutting the offense down in an 11-4 blowout at Dudy Noble Field.
It continues a massive spiral downward for Chris Lemonis in Starkville since his National Championship win in 2021.
While State was poor in just about every phase of the game, the start from Khal Stephen is what got the Diamond Dawgs in a hole. The Purdue transfer dazzled in his State debut last week against Air Force with 11 strikeouts, one run and no walks, but that wasn’t the case Saturday.
Stephen can’t replicate first outing
Stephen lasted just 2.1 innings, gave up six hits, seven runs, walked a batter and struck out three. He surrendered four runs in the first and another three with one out in the third before he was lifted. Stephen consistently worked ahead in counts but the Eagles made him pay on some mistake pitches with 0-2 and 1-2 counts.
“I think that was the biggest issue is we gave up a handful of 0-2 hits. We made two great pitches and leave a ball in a different part of the zone,” Lemonis said. “He’s such a command guy. You usually don’t see that from him. He left some balls in different spots and they took advantage of him.”
Cole Cheatham, Tyson Hardin and Karson Ligon followed with outings that were less than stellar, but freshman Luke Dotson provided a glimmer of hope with 2.1 innings of no-hit, no-run ball with a walk and four strikeouts.
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State’s offense was equally as bad. The Bulldogs put no pressure on the visitors at any point in the ball game as they managed to scatter just seven hits and struck out nine times. Joe Powell had two hits in the game but no one else was able to garner multiple base knocks.
“We’re trying to do a little too much, maybe. I thought (Georgia Southern starter Mitchell Gross) was really good (Saturday),” Lemonis said. “It was a lot of cutters in and changeups away. You don’t see that a lot and I thought he did a good job of that.”
MSU (3-4) scored in two innings with a run in the third frame coming on a David Mershon groundout and six-straight batters reached in the fifth only to score three runs and cut the lead to 11-4.
In the middle of a rough start to the year, the Diamond Dawgs have to find a way to get back on track. They will try to take the series on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. as Jurrangelo Cijntje takes the mound. According to the players, they haven’t lost faith yet.
“We’re really positive right now. We have a really good ball club, one of the best I’ve ever been on,” Powell said. “These days happen and it’s not every day that you have your ‘A’ game in baseball. It’s been a little bit of a rough patch to start the season but right now is a really good time to put your head to the ground and keep working.”
