Mississippi State Baseball Falls 13-3 to Long Beach State

Mississippi State baseball's Logan Tanner noted Friday that Mississippi State had to get things going offensively after the Bulldogs dropped 3-0 to Long Beach State in the season opener.

"You can't win a game hitting one base hit, and I think we got on base three of four times," Tanner told reporters Friday. "It wasn't a great offensive performance, but we've got to come out and be better tomorrow."

Mississippi State did get to the scoreboard on Saturday but had issues retiring batters, ultimately falling to Long Beach State, 13-3. The game stayed close and very much within the Bulldogs' grasp for the first three innings, but a strong momentum shift was in store that Long Beach State would only continue to build on as the game progressed.

The Bulldogs had fallen behind in a big way by the middle of the fourth inning after, as the Dirtbags extended their lead to 8-3. The bats went silent for both sides for three innings after that until Long homered to left field at the top of the eighth inning and Rozell scored after Saldivar singled to first base, Pimentel scored on a wild pitch, Long homered to right field and Saldivar scored in a ninth inning that put an exclamation mark on the dominance LBSU showed in the contest.

Mississippi State had missed opportunities to put up more runs as it didn't capitalize on Brad Cumbest's infield single in the fourth inning, struck out twice with a pop fly after a leadoff single from Logan Tanner in the fifth inning and Cumbest's sixth-inning leadoff double saw him stranded.

Head coach Chris Lemonis said after the game that he was confident in the talent of his team but wants to see them play with more poise and play solid baseball.

"I thought Brad Cumbest and Kamren James had a decent day of competing," Lemonis said on MSU Radio after the game. "Early on, we put some pressure on them. Their starter was good and we were good. But once (Long Beach State) took the lead, they just started pulling the string on us and we were a little bit overswinging."

There were some good moments, but the Bulldogs failed to grab the momentum and keep control of it.

"I thought Preston (Johnson) was good at times, still walked too many guys and fell behind on some counts," Lemonis said. "KC (Hunt) came out good, but I'm frustrated because I'm big about momentum and we talk about momentum. We get two runs and we come out and walk a guy in four pitches and then we score one run and come back and we walk a guy on four pitches. It's just hard to play great baseball that way."

Mississippi State will face Long Beach State for the final game of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT as the Bulldogs aim to avoid being swept with sophomore Cade Smith on the mound -- and for Lemonis, the message is simple.

"We have a good team. We lose a tough one yesterday and then today, we get embarrassed and so we've got to find out who we are and find out some toughness about us."