Mississippi State’s Reed Stallman tags a Vanderbilt base runner during a pick off on Friday night.
Craig Jackson
There were plenty of chances for Friday night’s series opener between Mississippi State and Vanderbilt to turn into disaster, but the Diamond Dawgs fought through it.
Ace starter Ryan McPherson left the game in the middle innings and Vanderbilt lived on the bases against Mississippi State’s bullpen. Despite all of that, the Bulldogs continuously wiggled out of trouble and held on for a 4-2 win.
“It wasn’t how you draw it up for sure,” MSU’s Brian O’Connor said of the win. “I talked to the team after the game and made a few points to them and one of the few points I did make is how important belief is. You might pitch yourself into a situation like Jack Gleason did in the fifth inning, but if you believe and execute, you can pitch and defend your way out of anything if you execute.”
McPherson exited the game at the start of the fifth inning after his warmup pitch to start the inning. The injury appeared to have occurred the inning before when the sophomore right hander got a strikeout of Braden Holcomb.
With a 4-1 lead, the Bulldog bullpen immediately began to make things tough on itself. Jack Gleason had to unexpectedly enter the game in that fifth inning and he loaded the bases on walk and two hit batters. Somehow, the redshirt freshman found his way out of that jam with a line out and 6-3 double play to keep the score where it was.
The very next inning, Gleason put two in scoring position with one out as he walked a batter and surrendered a double to Holcomb. Maddox Webb came in to get a strikeout to the first batter but walked the bases loaded. He would get a pop up to slip out of another inning with the bases loaded.
In the seventh frame, Vanderbilt walked twice with an out and Ben Davis came in for Webb. A strikeout and ground out left two on the bases for the Commodores.
MSU wouldn’t escape the damage in the eighth inning. Davis walked a batter with one out and just missed a strikeout with two down. After the close miss, Chris Maldonado took advantage with a full-count, two-out double to cut it to 4-2.
Davis kept the pedal down in the ninth. Facing 9-1-2 in the order, Davis got three outs on seven pitches and gave the Bulldogs the series-opening win.
The Bulldog pen was the difference. Despite eight free passes from Gleason, Webb and Davis that included six walks, they were unrelenting in the game. The trio gave up two hits and just one run with four strikeouts in five innings with Gleason (2-0) earning the win while Davis got his third save.
“I think we handled it great and the scoreboard shows that too,” Davis said. “It was just picking up your guy and if there’s runners on, you don’t let them score. The confidence of last inning last week to this week, it was just carrying the confidence and doing whatever it takes to win the game.”
McPherson was pitching well for Mississippi State before his injury as he threw four innings, gave up two hits, one walk and one run with four strikeouts. O’Connor had no update on him after the game other than he had stiffened up and didn’t look comfortable. The staff planned to gather more information after the game.
The offense put the Diamond Dawgs in a tough spot by not scoring over the final five innings, but they were clutch in the early innings. MSU had four runs with two outs as catcher Kevin Milewski got the first run of the game with a solo home run in the second.
After a sacrifice fly scored a run off of McPherson in the third, the Bulldogs were back again with two outs. A two-out walk to Gehrig Frei in the bottom of the third opened the door for Ryder Woodson to deliver a three-run home run to straight away centerfield for a 4-1 lead that stood.
“It felt great rounding the bases,” Woodson said. “For the at-bat, I was just looking for something to hit. I got it and I didn’t miss it. I’m starting to get more comfortable and swinging at better pitches. I can control what I can control.”
MSU had eight hits in the game from seven different batters with Noah Sullivan delivering a 2-for-3 night to get back on track. Sullivan also walked in the game.
The sixth largest crowd in NCAA history was there to watch the game as 14,649 cheered the Diamond Dawgs on to a 16th-straight win inside Dudy Noble Field dating back to last year. The Bulldogs are now 14-0 at home this year.
The No. 6 Bulldogs (18-4, 2-2 SEC) will be back in action on Saturday looking for a series win. Game two will throw out first pitch at 6 p.m. with left-handed pitcher Tomas Valincius on the mound for MSU.