The Bulldog Box Score and More: Bulldogs baffled by Rocker in loss to Vandy

It was almost like Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker was teasing Mississippi State.

When Rocker surrendered a leadoff double to MSU's Rowdey Jordan to start Friday night's game between the No. 4 Bulldogs and No. 2 Commodores, it seemingly allowed State to have hope that the often-untouchable Rocker wouldn't be his typically-dominant self on this night. And when MSU pushed Jordan around to score later in the frame for a 1-0 lead, the Bulldogs had even more reason to be optimistic.

Soon enough though, that Jordan leadoff double would be nothing more than a distant memory. Rocker was settled in, cruising and the Bulldog lineup was lifeless.

Rocker notched a complete game and allowed only three hits as MSU fell to Vanderbilt 6-2. After Jordan scored in the first for State, no Bulldog even reached second base against Rocker until the ninth inning when State tacked on one final run.

From the second through eighth innings, Rocker had five 1-2-3 frames. The only base runners he allowed in that span came when Jordan had an infield single in the third and when Rocker hit Tanner Allen with a pitch in the sixth. The big, Commodore right-hander was on cruise control for much of the night.

Meanwhile the Vanderbilt offense gave Rocker all he'd need as the Commodores struck for a four-run fourth inning. After State starting pitcher Christian MacLeod was masterful over his first three innings of work – notching seven strikeouts while not surrendering a run – things suddenly fell apart for MacLeod. The Bulldog lefty didn't make it out of the fourth as he allowed four runs on three hits and three walks in the frame.

MSU head coach Chris Lemonis went to reliever Stone Simmons to finally get State out of the fourth and Simmons went on to toss 3.1 strong innings of relief. But it was all for naught as MSU's bats were essentially silent to the end against Rocker.

Things certainly get no easier for the Bulldogs on Saturday as they seek to even up the weekend series. Vanderbilt will send Jack Leiter and his microscopic 0.98 earned run average to the mound opposite of MSU's Will Bednar.

The Commodores' Friday night ace proved to be too much for State to handle. But as is usually the case in baseball, there's another day coming with another game and another opportunity. And in MSU's case against Vanderbilt, there's also another ace to try and figure out.

Alright, let's have a quick look at Friday's stats, MSU MVPs and the Moment of the Game:

Mississippi State at Vanderbilt box score

MSU Offensive MVP: CF Rowdey Jordan

For all the struggles offensively on Friday, Jordan kept rolling right along as he's done for the last month. Jordan had two of State's three hits as he went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

While Jordan went 2-for-4, all other State hitters combined went 1-for-27. The only non-Jordan hit was a Luke Hancock RBI single in the ninth.

MSU Pitching MVP: RP Stone Simmons

Simmons was brilliant out of the Bulldog bullpen on Friday. He was even better than his pitching line will indicate.

Simmons hurled 3.1 scoreless innings before he returned to the mound to pitch the eighth inning and ran into immediate trouble by issuing a walk and allowing a single. He was pulled at that point, relieved by Chase Patrick, but both of the baserunners Simmons left came around to score and were charged to him.

Nonetheless, it was an impressive showing by Simmons that might've both earned him more work in important situations in the future, as well as preserved State's bullpen for the rest of this weekend.

Moment of the Game: MacLeod loses control

In a game against Rocker, you simply can't afford to fall too far behind. So when MacLeod went from dominant to out of control in the fourth, the Bulldogs found themselves in too deep of a hole to recover.

It's hard to overstate how strong MacLeod was in his first turn through the Vanderbilt lineup. But for whatever reason, he couldn't continue it on the second trip through the order.

MacLeod walked the first two batters of the fourth inning and it was like he lit the fuse for Vanderbilt to explode with a big inning. Not long after those two free passes, MSU was down 4-1 and MacLeod was out of the game.

With Rocker rolling, the Bulldogs never really even threatened to get back in the contest.

"I thought Christian was really good for three innings, as good as I have seen him," Lemonis said. "He really kept them off balance, but just lost the strike zone in the fourth inning … They are a lineup you can’t throw a lot of 2-0 fastballs to. He lost his changeup as the game went on and bounced a couple of curveballs and that just put him behind in counts and they took advantage of it."

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