No Sweep: Mississippi State Baseball Tops Long Beach State, 12-4

Mississippi State refused to be swept in its season-opening home series against Long Beach State, looking like a much-improved team in Game 3 against the Dirtbags as sophomore pitcher Cade Smith took the mound.

After going through some offensive struggles in the first game, dropping 3-0 to the Dirtbags on Friday and failing to contain them on Day 2 with a 13-3 loss, Mississippi State recorded a dominant 12-4 victory on Sunday in Starkville.

Head coach Chris Lemonis had stressed the importance of momentum, and the Bulldogs snagged it early in the second inning with Matt Corder homering to left field to score RJ Yeager. Kamren James put another run on the board in the third inning before a fifth inning that saw the bats come alive for the Bulldogs in a way they hadn't for the entirety of the series.

Mississippi State had a strong opportunity in the fourth inning, but instead left two runners on base. The Bulldogs wouldn't make the same mistake in the following with Hines singling up the middle while the bases were loaded to score Luke Hancock and James, extending the lead to a strong 5-0. The Bulldogs built upon that, with Logan Tanner, Hunter Hines, Corder, Yeager and Brad Cumbest all scoring before the start of the sixth inning.

Sophomore pitcher Cade Smith's performance on the mound was a key to the Bulldogs' big win as he pitched 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up just one hit and charged with one run, pitching 68 times -- 43 of which went for strikes as he sat down six batters.

Long Beach State, which had performed so strongly the first two days, didn't get its first run of the ball game until the sixth inning, with a pair of runs from Jimenez and Long, putting together two more runs -- one in the seventh and one in the ninth.

But by the time the Dirtbags got to the scoreboard, it was more than easy to get the sense this was the Diamond Dawgs' game to lose and Mississippi State continued to limit what their visitor was able to accomplish offensively.

Lemonis praised his team's ability to come back after two games that didn't go their way and to pull ahead in a way that Long Beach State couldn't answer to.

"We had our backs against the wall right out of the gate and I give our kids a lot of credit," he said on MSU Radio after the game. "They responded and came out and played well. I thought we got a great start from Cade (Smith). He dominated the whole game and we were able to put together a big inning in there to separate ourselves."

The Bulldogs will face up UAPB up next on the schedule at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday at 3 p.m. CT.

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