Mississippi State Baseball Blasts Six Homes Runs in 13-2 Victory over UT Martin

The Diamond Dawgs were unstoppable on offense in their midweek victory over the Skyhawks.

Mississippi State baseball tallied six home runs and run-ruled UT Martin by a score of 13-2 on Tuesday night.

Luke Hancock went 3-for-3 at the plate with two home runs, two runs scored, four RBI and one walk to lead the Diamond Dawgs. Brad Cumbest hit one home run and drove in three runs while going 3-for-3 at the plate. Hunter Hines, Kellum Clark and Tanner Leggett also had one home run apiece. Kamren James had three stolen bases and scored two runs. Starting pitcher Brandon Smith gave up two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in four innings of work. Mikey Tepper struck out four, and KC hunt struck out one. The three pitchers combined only walked one batter in seven innings of play.

The Diamond Dawgs got off to a hot start. Smith gave up one hit on his first pitch but struck out the next three batters he faced to assert dominance early. James recorded the first hit of the game for the Bulldogs with a single, then stole both second and third. Hancock continued his hot streak with a home run to make the score 2-0 quickly. Hines broke the slump he was in over the weekend with a home run of his own. With a 3-0 advantage, the home team was rolling early. 

Mississippi State tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the second inning. Cumbest singled and RJ Yeager was hit by a pitch to put more runners on quickly. Tanner Leggett bunted and reached second base on an error by the pitcher, scoring Cumbest. James and Logan Tanner each hit sacrifice flies to score runs as well. 

UT-Martin got into the game with two solo home runs in the top of the third inning, but MSU once again responded by doubling that in the bottom part of the frame to make the score 10-2. Clark homered, then Leggett flew one over the fence to score both him and Cumbest. Hancock singled up the middle to score James, who walked. 

Cumbest had the fifth home run of the evening for the Bulldogs in the fourth inning to push his team's lead to 11-2. Pitcher Mikey Tepper was brought into the game at the top of the fifth and struck out the side. 

Neither team scored again until the sixth inning when Mississippi State put up two more runs. Hancock hammered his second home run of the game. It capped off an outstanding night for the catcher-turned-first-baseman out of Houston Mississippi, who has struggled some over the past month. Hancock said that he is finally getting some luck after seeing the ball well for weeks.

"Even when I wasn't getting hits or getting on base, I felt like I was still seeing the ball good," Hancock said. "But right now, I'm still seeing it the same and just lucky enough to be finding holes or getting them out of the ballpark."

The game had turned into a complete blowout, so new batters came off the bench to replace the majority of the starting lineup. Matt Corder, Jess Davis and Davis Meche loaded the bases with two outs, and Corder managed to score the final run of the game on a wild pitch. 

KC Hunt came into the game in the top of the seventh inning to close things out. He allowed no runners to reach base and helped the Bulldogs seal the run-rule victory. His final inning capped off a huge night for the bullpen, which has been continuing to improve. Head coach Chris Lemonis said he still wants to see more out of the bullpen as they continue throughout the season.

"Coming out of that Alabama series, our bullpen kind of hurt us," Lemonis said. "It'd be nice to get Cole Cheatham going a little bit. I think he could really help us-- we need another left-handed arm there. But you know, the four righties have been pretty good." 

Mississippi State now sits at 18-12 on the season with a huge SEC series against LSU coming up this weekend.