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Diamond Dawgs rolled 17-8 as No. 8 LSU delivers sweep

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•03/30/25•

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karson ligon
RHP Karson Ligon (Photo by Mississippi State Athletics)

Mississippi State badly needed a win on Saturday night, but the Diamond Dawgs instead fell flat.

After blowing chances to take each of the first two games, State fell apart in game three against No. 8 LSU. The Tigers got all the offense it needed in a disastrous first inning for the Diamond Dawgs and earned the sweep in an 17-8 game.

After a previously scheduled 2 p.m. start was delayed several hours due to weather, the two teams finally threw out first pitch at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. State came out in the game looking like a team playing ball way past its bedtime and the Tigers pounced.

“I thought our kids fought. That’s a tough one to overcome,” head coach Chris Lemonis said on postgame radio. “As a collective, we don’t do enough. The eight runs is one thing, but we didn’t do enough in relief.”

Tigers looked like the desperate team early

The Bulldogs kept the bats on their shoulders in a 1-2-3 first inning with two strikeouts. Meanwhile, the aggression was there from the Tigers. Eight runs would come across on eight hits in the opening frame as LSU built a massive 8-0 lead. The Tigers had a two-run home run from Jared Jones to kick it off and then the hits wouldn’t stop coming.

The big play of the inning came with a 3-0 lead. A lineout to Sawyer Reeves had a perfectly capable double play on the table but Reeves soft-tossed it over Hunter Hines’ head at first base. A play that would have ended the inning opened the door for five more runs.

It was a miserable start for Karson Ligon who recorded just two outs. Ligon gave up eight runs on seven hits with no strikeouts.

State did battle back the next inning. Hines led off the frame with a solo home run and started a bit of a rally in the inning. The Diamond Dawgs loaded up the bases with one out and Dylan Cupp kept things going with a three-run double that made it 8-4.

LSU got a run back in the second on a two-out single and scored two more in the fifth on another two-out base hit to make it 11-4. The Bulldogs got a run back in the bottom of the sixth but also left two on base.

The two teams would trade some offense the rest of the way with the Bulldogs having a chance to really close in the lead but they could get it no closer than 13-8 in the seventh. Mikhai Grant pitched a poor eighth inning as the Tigers scored three runs against him on two hits and two walks.  

It was the worst pitched game of the year for the Bulldogs as they gave up 19 hits and walked seven batters in the game. Eight of the nine hitters in the LSU lineup had a hit with six of them garnering multiple hits and four notching three hits each.

For State, it was an eight-hit affair with two hits each from Nolan Stevens and Cupp. Stevens drove in two runs on a double while Cupp had three RBI on a double. State also walked seven times and had two walks from Hines who also hit another home run. The Diamond Dawgs struck out 10 times, a day after striking out 18 in a 2-1 loss to LSU on Friday.

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The Bulldogs (16-12, 1-8 SEC) tied the worst start in SEC play in school history. State also began 2023 1-8 in SEC play and a loss next Friday to South Carolina would give the Bulldogs their worst start ever. MSU has also now gone just 36-63 in SEC play the last four seasons after winning the National Championship in 2021. Lemonis was 40-20 in SEC play his first two seasons.

MSU will go back to work next week playing on the road at Memphis on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. before hosting the Gamecocks for a three-game set.

“It’s been a tough stretch. This is our tough stretch of the year,” Lemonis said. “We’re going to get home at 7 a.m., get a day’s rest and get back to work on Monday and get ready for that Memphis game.”

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