Diamond Dawgs blow big lead in 6-5 loss to South Alabama in Biloxi
A 5-0 lead for Mississippi State wasn’t enough to put away South Alabama on Tuesday night in Biloxi.
Miscues in the field and no production at the plate for the final 5.0 innings allowed the Jaguars back into the game and ninth inning heroics brought them home. A two-run double from Magnolia Heights freshman Ethan Melton off of State closer Brooks Auger gave the Jags a 6-5 lead and a comeback win.
It was Auger’s first earned runs surrendered this season as he grabbed the loss.
“It’s probably as disappointing a game as we’ve had this year. We had the momentum and didn’t do the little things to win the game,” coach Chris Lemonis said. “They’re focus items. We’re walking guys and hitting guys, just not a good performance. It could have been a nice resume game, but instead that game goes to them and it’s just disappointing.”
One big inning is all for Bulldog bats
With two on and two out in the fourth, Amani Larry hit a rocket out of the stadium in left field for a three-run home run that finally broke the ice in the game. David Mershon followed with a double and Dakota Jordan would drive in two more on a home run over the right field fence to make it 5-0.
The SEC Co-Player of the Week Jordan homered for the fifth game in a row and now has a team-leading nine on the year. He finished the night 2-for-4 with the two RBI as he continued his hot streak that has him batting .419 on the year.
The rest of the night was quiet for State’s hitters. The Diamond Dawgs had 12 of the final 13 batters retired by USA pitching with Jordan’s single in the seventh the only batter to reach after the five-run frame.
Meanwhile, State’s defense allowed the Jags back in the ball game. Freshman Luke Dotson had allowed the first three batters to reach on a walk, single and double to cut the lead to 5-1, but had two outs on the Jags and had a pop up in shallow left field there to end the inning but it dropped. That closed the game to 5-3 quickly.
Another run came in the seventh when, with two outs, a ground ball up the middle got by the glove of Mershon and scored another run making it 5-4. That left the gate open for USA and they got three-straight on base with a hit, walk and the double to get the lead.
MSU got a leadoff single from Dylan Cupp in the ninth but left him at first base with three-straight outs from the top of the lineup.
That top of the order of Larry, Mershon and Jordan all had two hits and all five of the runs driven in with two doubles and two home runs. The rest of the lineup had four hits combined with two of those coming from Connor Hujsak.
It marred what was a strong return to the mound for sophomore LHP Bradley Loftin. The sophomore started the game and went 3.0 innings, gave up two hits, no runs, didn’t walk any batters and struck out six. The bullpen and the defense didn’t allow his work to stand.
Up Next
The loss breaks up a nine-game winning streak for the Bulldogs as they dropped to 12-5 with a gauntlet of an SEC schedule on the way. The team still has to play another midweek game this week as well with a hungry New Orleans team meeting them in Biloxi on Wednesday night at 5 p.m.
“We don’t know a lot about them,” Lemonis said. “They beat South Alabama last week in Mobile so I told our ball club we’ve got more work to do. Great atmosphere tonight, great crowd and to finish the night the way that we did, I’m just really disappointed.”
