Mississippi State and Jacksonville State will meet for the 13th time on Tuesday night
STARKVILLE – The final regular season home game arrives in the form of a midweek tilt against Jacksonville State on Tuesday (May 18) on Dudy Noble Field. The Diamond Dawgs and Gamecocks will meet for the 13th time in program history.
Mississippi State leads the all-time series, 11-1, but Jacksonville State earned the victory in the last meeting in 2014. MSU is 9-1 at home, 1-0 on the road and the two teams squared off in the 2004 NCAA Atlanta Regional, a 7-6 victory for Mississippi State.
Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen provide one of the best one-two punches in college baseball, as Jordan sets the tables as the leadoff hitter and Allen has delivered so many big hits out of the two-spot in the order.
Jordan enters the week on a 34-game hitting streak – which is the fifth-longest streak at MSU since 2002 – and he is hitting .358 with 44 hits, 39 runs scored and 21 walks during that stretch. Over the last 10 games, Allen is hitting .500 with 24 hits, 11 runs scored and 10 RBIs. In 2021, Allen leads the SEC in batting average (.388), is No. 2 in hits (73) and No. 4 in on-base percentage (.466) and runs scored (52). Allen is the only SEC student-athlete to rank among the top 10 in average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, runs scored and RBIs in 2021.
Parker Stinnett will make his first start on the mound at MSU, as the sophomore has logged 14 1/3 innings of work over 13 appearances. he owns a 1.88 ERA and has 23 strikeouts to nine walks on the season.
Offensively, JSU is averaging 6.1 runs per game on 9.7 hits. A .280 team batting average is bolstered by a .371 on-base percentage. The Gamecocks have 160 extra base hits on the season, including 51 home runs. Alex Webb leads the offense with nine home runs and 50 RBIs. He is second on the team with a .312 batting average and 34 runs scored.
Gameday Info
Tuesday, May 18 (6:30 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Parker Stinnett, RHP, So.
JSU: Camden Lovrich, RHP, Fr.
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Quick Hitters
- Mississippi State will spend its 13th straight week ranked among the top five by at least one major poll, sitting as high as No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball. FULL POLLS ON PAGE 6
- On the mound, Mississippi State posted two more double-digit strikeout games in three outings last weekend to move its season total to an NCAA-leading 624 strikeouts.
- State is the only program in the country with 600-plus strikeouts and its total ranks No. No. 3 on the MSU single season charts. In 49 games this season, State had piled up 10-plus punchouts in 41 of those contests.
- Tanner Allen leads all conference hitters with a .388 batting average, is No. 2 in hits (73), No. 4 in runs scored (52) and No. 7 in RBIs (48). He is one of two SEC hitters with 40 RBIs, 50 runs scored and 70 hits.
- Over the weekend against Missouri, Allen became just the eighth Diamond Dawg in program history to reach 250 hits, 150 RBIs and 150 runs scored in a career.
MORE ON PAGE 8 - Rowdey Jordan moved his reached base streak to 34 games over the weekend, a streak that sits No. 5 on the single-season charts since 2002.
MORE ON PAGE 9 - The Ferriss Trophy, awarded to the top collegiate baseball student-athlete in Mississippi, has tabbed Tanner Allen and Landon Sims as finalists for the award. It is the second straight awards cycle that Mississippi State has produced two finalists for the trophy named after Mississippi State’s own David “Boo” Ferriss.
- Graduate student Scotty Dubrule is among the 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, which focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
- Head coach Chris Lemonis notched his 100th win at Mississippi State (130 games coached) against Missouri on Thursday (May 13) and is the fastest head coach in program history to reach the 100-win mark. Pat McMahon reached the 100-win mark in his 146th career game as head coach, while Ron Polk took 150 games to reach the 100-win mark.
- Entering the week, Mississippi State is 29-1 in midweek contests over the last three seasons, including a perfect 11-0 mark during the 2021 season. The Diamond Dawgs went 15-0 in the midweek during the 2019 season and was 3-1 in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short.
Scouting the Opponent
- Jacksonville State enters the weekend with a 24-25 overall record and a 14-13 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Gamecocks dropped two of three games at Austin Peay over the weekend and are 10-14 on the road in 2021.
- Offensively, JSU is averaging 6.1 runs per game on 9.7 hits. A .280 team batting average is bolstered by a .371 on-base percentage. The Gamecocks have 160 extra base hits on the season, including 51 home runs.
- On the mound, Jacksonville State owns a 4.33 ERA and a .261 batting average against. Ten pitchers have logged at least 25 innings for JSU this season and five have an ERA at or below 4.00.
- Alex Webb leads the offense with nine home runs and 50 RBIs. He is second on the team with a .312 batting average and 34 runs scored.
- Alex Carignan leads the team with a .378 average, while every-day starters Zeth Malcom (.302) and Carson Crowe (.301) also enter with averages above .300.
Series Notes
- Mississippi State and Jacksonville State will meet for the 13th time in program history on Tuesday. The Diamond Dawgs own an 11-1 edge in the series.
- The first meeting between the two programs came on March 2 and 3, 1996. The Diamond Dawgs won both games, claiming the first, by a score of 21-2, before winning a 10-inning contest, 3-2, the next day.
- The Bulldogs and Gamecocks met in the 2004 NCAA Atlanta Regional, where MSU grabbed a 7-6 victory.
- Five of the 11 previous meetings have been decided by three-or-fewer runs, with three of those being one-run games.
- Mississippi State won the first 11 meetings between the two programs, before Jacksonville State won the last meeting in 2014, 2-1, in Starkville.