Sweet relief from Sims propels Bulldogs over Longhorns

Winter weather has finally moved out of the South. But it was still awfully windy in Texas on Saturday as Texas Longhorn batters provided the fuel for the stiff breeze by swinging and missing repeatedly at the filthy pitching of Mississippi State's Landon Sims.

Sims provided four dominant innings of relief to lead No. 7 MSU to an 8-3 win over No. 9 Texas at the season-opening State Farm Showdown. From the time Sims entered in a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the fifth inning, until the time he left following the eighth, Sims was hardly touched.

"That was really good and that's what he's been," MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said of Sims. "He may have been our hottest pitcher coming (into the season). He's been good. He's a starter on probably every staff in the country and could be on ours. But he has the versatility to come out of the bullpen and be used in so many different ways."

On Saturday, Sims displayed just how much of a force he can be out of that Bulldog pen. Sims entered in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Bulldogs had built a 5-1 lead, but the game was on the edge of flipping the other direction.

After MSU starter Christian MacLeod started the game with four shutout innings of work, Texas' Ivan Melendez smacked a leadoff home run in the fifth. The Longhorns then loaded the bases on MacLeod and brought the tying run to the plate with no one out. Enter Sims.

All the right-hander did was strike out three straight Texas batters, all swinging, to escape the jam. Sims came off the mound, displaying a ton of emotion as he was met at the dugout by his jubilant teammates.

"It was electric," MSU designated hitter Luke Hancock said of the mood in the dugout after Sims wiggled out of trouble. "We were waiting on it. We knew whenever he came in – every time he comes in – he means business. We knew what we were going to get out of him. When he got out of that bases-loaded jam, we were all talking about in the dugout just watching Landon to see what he does. He definitely put on a show for us."

And the show was just starting. Sims followed up his fifth-inning magic act by setting Texas down in order in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. At one point, he struck out seven straight Longhorns. In all, Sims pitched four innings, he struck out 10 and didn't allow a single baserunner. It was absolute domination from the second-year player out of the state of Georgia.

"Seeing (MacLeod) have success with his fastball in the upper part of the zone, I was taking note of that when I was in the bullpen knowing that if I threw my fastball up in the zone, I could get some swings and misses," Sims said. "It ended up working out that way."

With Sims dealing, following MacLeod before him, the Bulldog bats took care of the rest. MSU got to Texas ace Ty Madden early. Landon Jordan and Drew McGowan each had two-out, run-scoring singles in the second. Hancock homered down the right-field line in the fourth and MSU added another unearned run later in the frame to go up 4-0. Hancock then tacked on an RBI single an inning later off of Texas reliever Pete Hansen.

Melendez' blast off of MacLeod got one back for the Longhorns in the fifth, but MSU put things away with a run in the sixth and two more in the eighth. Rowdey Jordan drove in two of the final three MSU runs, including one with a solo homer in the eighth. Josh Hatcher had an RBI double to account for State's final run.

Texas did put up a ninth-inning fight, touching up MSU reliever Riley Self for a couple of runs, but Spencer Price took over for Self and recorded the final two outs to nail down the victory for the Bulldogs.

It was about as perfect of a season opener as MSU could've hoped for. After not playing baseball for nearly a calendar year, enduring a worldwide pandemic and having this weekend threatened by a historic ice storm, the Bulldogs exploded back onto the scene with an impressive win over a Top-10 team. Lemonis couldn't help but enjoy it.

"It was exciting," Lemonis said. "Especially for our players. Their families were getting to see them play. The guys haven't played in front of anybody (since last March). It was a really cool experience. I'm really happy with the way we played."

State will try move to 2-0 for the season on Sunday. The Bulldogs return to action in the State Farm College Showdown with an 11 a.m. central game against TCU. Right-hander Will Bednar is scheduled to be the starting pitcher for State. He's slated to be opposed by Horned Frogs lefty Russell Smith.

(FOR MORE POSTGAME COVERAGE, CLICK HERE TO WATCH MSU HEAD COACH CHRIS LEMONIS' POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE OR CLICK HERE FOR THE BULLDOG BOX SCORE/GAME MVPs/LUKE HANCOCK PRESS CONFERENCE.)

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