Bullpen shines as Bulldogs beat Kent State
Mar. 6—STARKVILLE — Mississippi State ace Christian MacLeod struggled once again this season, but the Bulldogs' bullpen was there to save the day on Friday night.
No. 3-ranked Mississippi State beat Kent State, 8-3, at Dudy Noble Field. Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.
MacLeod pitched only 1.2 innings on the night. He gave up four hits, walked three batters and allowed three innings. He was pulled at 57 pitches. He has yet to pitch over four innings in an outing this year.
The bullpen, consisting of Brandon Smith, Will Bednar and Carlisle Koestler, allowed just one base runner in 7.1 innings and struck out 11 Kent State batters.
"I thought they were really good," head coach Chris Lemonis said of the bullpen. "Brandon kind of changed the game for us. He changed the tempo and was aggressive in the zone. It was nice to see Will back in there throwing with the velocity he was and I thought Carlisle did really good in the eighth and ninth."
Kent State led 3-1 in the top of the second inning when MacLeod was pulled. After allowing a solo home run to give the Golden Flashes a 2-1 lead, MacLeod walked two batters and allowed a single to load the bases.
A wild pitch scored another run, and MacLeod walked a third batter in the inning to load the bases again.
Smith then entered the game for Mississippi State. He got out of the second inning on the first pitch he threw, then threw four perfect innings and earned the win. He struck out five batters and retired all 13 batters he faced on 45 pitches.
"When I first came in there, I just had a good feel for fastball away and fastball in," Smith said. "The biggest part of my success so far has been being able to locate first pitch strikes and really making them hit my pitches."
With Smith dealing on the mound, the Mississippi State bats came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning. Rowdey Jordan led off the inning with an infield single and Scotty Dubrule walked to put two runners on with no outs.
Tanner Allen singled to score one, then Logan Tanner was walked. Josh Hatcher was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game, 3-3, and Luke Hancock gave Mississippi State a 5-3 lead with a two-run single to right field.
The Bulldogs added two more runs with a Kamren James fielder's choice and a Landon Jordan RBI single.
"We are going to keep working and keep pushing to get going earlier," Jordan said. "Right now, that's part of our game. We struggled a little bit in the beginning and then gotten going. We are going to keep working on having good at-bats early in the game."
With a 7-1 lead, Smith was pulled from the mound and Bednar, the MSU Saturday starter who has missed the first three weeks of the season due to injury, made his season debut.
He pitched one inning and struck two batters. He sat around 93-94 mph consistently and touched 96.
Koestler entered after Bednar and walked one batter and allowed no hits in two innings of work.
