April 2, 2015

Box Score

STARKVILLE, MISS. – Mississippi State tallied 12 hits and broke out to an eight-run lead in the first three innings on the way to a 13-2 win over 13th ranked South Carolina on Thursday night at Dudy Noble Field. The Gamecocks are now 20-10 and 5-5 in the SEC with Mississippi State now 20-14 and 4-6 in league play. Due to the threat of inclement weather, Friday’s game has been moved up to 4 p.m. ET.

MSU starter Lucas Laster pitched a complete game to earn the win. He is now 4-1 on the year. He allowed two runs on eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Gamecock right-hander Wil Crowe suffered the loss and is now 3-3 on the year. Crowe allowed eight runs, six earned, on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work.

A pair of Gamecock errors allowed Mississippi State to jump out in front 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning. A deep fly to left-center off the bat of Cody Brown went off the glove of Gene Cone allowing Brown to reach second base. He scored on Jake Vickerson’s double down the right field line. With one out and runners on first and second base, Jacob Robson knocked a ball up the middle. On the play, Max Schrock threw to Jordan Gore for the force, who then threw a little low to first base. As the ball got away from Kyle Martin at first base, Vickerson scored to give the Bulldogs a two-run lead.

Mississippi State batted around in the third inning to take an 8-0 lead. Vickerson led off the frame with his second double of the game. With one out, he scored on a wild pitch. After MSU loaded the bases, Robson drove in a run with a RBI single followed up by a three-run double from John Holland. A two-out single from Cody Brown gave the Bulldogs an eight-run cushion.

Carolina got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth as Kyle Martin led off with a double and advanced on a pair of wild pitches to score. South Carolina added a run in the sixth with Max Schrock leading off with a single and scoring on a two-out RBI double of the bat of DC Arendas.

Mississippi State would add a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, two more in the seventh and one in the eighth to complete the scoring.

GAME CHANGER
A six-run third inning sparked by a three-run double by Holland gave MSU an eight-run lead.

KEY STAT
Ryan Gridley and John Holland were 5-for-6 with runners in scoring position and finished with six hits and six RBI to lead Mississippi State at the plate.

NOTABLES
• DC Arendas tallied two doubles, the first game of his career that he has tallied two in one game. He is the second Gamecock player with two doubles in a game this year. Marcus Mooney had two doubles vs. Northeastern on Feb. 21. Arendas also tied his season-high in hits.
• The loss snaps an 11-game streak of contests decided by three runs or less for the Gamecocks
• Elliott Caldwell went 2-for-4. He now has a team-high 12 multi-hit games on the year.

QUOTABLE
South Carolina Head Coach Chad Holbrook
(Wil) just didn’t have it. He was up in the strike zone and didn’t have command of his pitches. On top of that, we didn’t play great defense behind him. It was just a tough night. Mississippi State – there is not much more to say – they kicked our tail.

We are in this together and trying to win. We just have to play better. We have to play better on the road against teams like that. They obviously played an incredible game tonight and we didn’t match them and that is the kind of result you get.

UP NEXT
Game two of the series is set for Friday at 4 p.m. ET. The game was moved up three and a half hours due to the threat of inclement weather. It will be televised on SEC Network Plus and it can also be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM “The Game.”