Diamond Dawgs snap nation's longest winning streak in 11-2 throttling of Northeastern

By ROBBIE FAULK

Starkville Daily News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Northeastern entered Friday night’s Tallahassee Regional with Mississippi State with the country’s top pitching staff and a 27-game winning streak in its pocket.

Pitching left-handed ace Will Jones, the Huskies felt good about their chances with his sub 2.00 ERA. State ended that hope early.

The Diamond Dawgs scored seven runs off of Jones and threw up seven-straight scoreless innings with their pitching in a 11-2 win. The victory moved the Bulldogs into the winner’s bracket of the Regional.

“I’m just really proud of these guys (Friday),” interim head coach Justin Parker said. “We felt like we’ve had our backs against the wall for a month now and that’s the kind of baseball we’ve been playing. It was nice to do that against a really good opponent. I thought it was complete in all three phases.

State offense comes alive with bottom of the order leading the way

It was an all-around strong game for the Bulldogs on Friday night. State had 13 hits on the offensive side of the ball with a couple of home runs. Bryce Chance continued to stay red hot as he went 4-for-5 with an RBI and a double. He extended his hitting streak to 18 games in the process.

The bottom four in the lineup were exceptional for the Bulldogs as Chance, Joe Powell, Ross Highfill and Gatlin Sanders all had multiple hits. The bottom three had two hits each with Powell driving in four runs on a double and a home run. Sanders drove in three runs in the game.

It was that part of the order that would break the game open early. Powell started it with a one-out chopper that got through the infield in the second inning and turned into an RBI double. Sanders came through with a two-run single through the right side with two outs and it was suddenly 3-1.

After Northeastern added a run in the second to close the gap, State would take full control in the third. The first two reached in the inning and then Hunter Hines grounded out to score a run. A two-out rally would come with Chance’s RBI double and then Powell slammed a two-run homer off the scoreboard in left field for a 7-2 advantage.

State’s bats were quieted for the next four innings before Sanders doubled home a run with two outs in the eighth. Noah Sullivan would extend that lead even more in the ninth with a two-run home run to left field and Powell grounded out to get another run to get the 11-2 win.

While State’s offense dominated, the pitching was strong as well. Starter Ben Davis threw 5.0 innings in his start and scattered five hits, one earned run, two walks and three strikeouts. He gave up two runs in the first two innings and then had three-straight scoreless.

Parker said postgame that the move to start Davis was “health-related” and didn’t comment further.

“I kind of self-inflicted myself, but other than that I felt like I did pretty good,” Davis said. “Preparing for it is just preparing for any other game. Just preparing like I always do.”

Parker turned to freshman Ryan McPherson in the sixth inning. A game after he couldn’t get out of the second inning of his start in the SEC Tournament against Texas A&M, McPherson was dominant with 4.0 scoreless and hitless innings. He walked a batter with three strikeouts.

Up Next

The Bulldogs (35-21) will now turn their attention to host Florida State. The Seminoles took a 6-2 win over Bethune-Cookman in their game earlier on Friday. The two teams square off in a heavyweight battle at 5 p.m. CT on Saturday with FSU’s powerful LHP ace Jamie Arnold taking the mound. Parker has not decided on a starting pitcher at this time.

“They’re a good team but we’re going to come out ready to play,” Powell said. “We’re going to get our game plan together and get our scouting reports. We’re going to go execute it and put our best foot forward to go win that game.”