Three Takeaways from Mississippi State's 18-5 Loss to Vanderbilt Heading into Game 3

Mississippi State baseball has disappointed to this point in the season overall with varied rates of success by the contest and without its first SEC win of the year, currently 0-5 in conference play.

The Bulldogs most recently dropped the second meeting of the series against the Commodores, 18-5 on Saturday. Here's a look into three takeaways from the loss.

1. Continued search for consistency.

The team is still trying to find consistent footing in its pitching rotation. As opposed to the five rotations yesterday, Starting pitcher Landon Gartman stayed on the diamond for five innings before rotating with KC Hunt.

"We just, we gotta get more outs on the mound and I think we'll be fine on the offensive side," said head coach Chris Lemonis after the game.

While most pitchers have shown the ability to throw strikeouts, Vanderbilt still came out strong and was able to drive the ball across the field consistently. There is a lot of potential for the pitchers, but the issue may be with the coaching.

2. A lot of fight left.

Even though the past two games were tough for MSU, they will continue to fight.

"Keep your head up and be positive to get out of this. We have to do it together as a group."

A team is a team. They win together and lose together, which is something that the staff coaches well. The chemistry between the team is very well seen amongst the games. Even if games don't go well for the Bulldogs, they'll play together as one unit and that's something that has shown through.

3. Not staying down.

There's a lot of fixing to do and it's clear several things are not on the right track for the Bulldogs, but the team itself isn't discouraged. They started the second game with more power than they started the first. They kept Vanderbilt from scoring in the first three innings and even scored a run during the second inning.

The players are still determined to keep pushing, as implied by designated hitter Bryce Chance.

"I mean, the only way to get through it is to keep going. . ." he said "we still have a chance to make a run with this. So, I mean, it's never too late."

Although Vanderbilt had secured the win in this series, it hasn't stopped the Bulldogs from wanting to be better in future games. But it's all going to need to translate to the field when the Bulldogs face the Commodores a third time to close out the series.