Bulldogs and Jaguars will meet for third time in program history on Tuesday at The Dude
STARKVILLE – Coming off of an SEC sweep over Kentucky last week, the No. 4 Mississippi State baseball program will host Southern on Tuesday (April 6) at Dudy Noble Field. The Bulldogs and Jaguars will throw the first pitch at 6:30 p.m.
Mississippi State (20-7, 5-4 SEC) and Southern (10-14, 8-4 SWAC) will meet for just the third time in program history. All three meetings have come since 2018, with State claiming the victory in each of the previous two meetings. MUS and SU met in the 2018 season for the first time in series history and then met to open up the 2019 NCAA Starkville Regional.
Graduate student Carlisle Koestler will get the start for Mississippi State on the mound. The right-hander owns 34 career starts between his undergraduate career at Southeastern Louisiana and his graduate seasons at Mississippi State. Over his five college seasons, Koestler has struck out 178 batters in 210 innings of work and will make his first start of the season versus Southern.
Gameday Info
Tuesday, April 6 (6:30 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Carlisle Koestler, RHP, Gr.
SU: TBA
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Quick Hitters
- Mississippi State will spend its seventh straight week ranked among the top five by at least one of the major polls, sitting as high as No. 4 per Baseball America.
FULL POLLS ON PAGE 6 - As a pitching staff, Mississippi State fanned 10-plus batters in all three games against Kentucky and now has double-digit strikeouts in 22 of 27 games in 2021. Bulldog pitchers have fanned at least 10 batter in six straight games entering the week.
- Against Kentucky, the Bulldog pitchers held the Wildcat hitters to a .170 batting average and allowed just five earned runs. The staff struck out 39 and walked just 10 – two intentional.
- Christian MacLeod (Fr.-3Y) picked up his third win of the season and second in SEC play with six scoreless frames against Kentucky in the series opener. He posted 11 strikeouts for the second time this season – both in SEC play – and didn’t allow a runner to reach third base in the game. For his efforts, he was named SEC Pitcher of the Week for the first time in his career.
- Luke Hancock (So.) drove in five RBIs on the weekend with his seventh home run of the season and four sacrifice files.
- On the season, Hancock leads the team with a .434 on-base percentage and seven home runs. He has walked 23 times, been hit-by-pitch four times and struck out just seven times on the season. His 28 RBIs also lead the team.
- Rowdy Jordan (Jr.) started to heat up at the plate with a .455 batting average in three games against the Wildcats. He collected five hits, scored six runs, drove in two RBIs and was hit-by-pitch twice. The switch hitter didn’t strike out in 13 plate appearances on the weekend.
- Landon Sims (Fr.-2Y) picked up his second win of the season on Saturday against Kentucky with two scoreless innings of work with two strikeouts. The two scoreless innings moved his scoreless innings streak to 12 2/3 innings and has allowed just one run in 19 1/3 innings of work over eight appearances.
- For the seventh straight semester under head coach Chris Lemonis, the baseball program logged a GPA of 3.0 or better during the Fall 2020 term. The team compiled a 3.19 GPA, with 33 student-athletes earning a 3.0 GPA or better.
Scouting the Opponent
- Southern enters with a 10-14 overall record and an 8-4 mark in SWAC play after taking one of three games at Texas Southern over the weekend.
- As a team, Southern enters ranked No. 19 nationally in stolen bases per game at 1.79. The 43 team stolen bases rank No. 13 nationally.
- O’Neill Burgos leads the Jaguars with a .323 batting average, 19 runs scored and 30 hits on the season. He also ranks among the team leaders in RBIs (17) and slugging percentage (.495).
- Jaylen Armstrong leads the team with eight stolen bases to just one caught stealing, while Isaiah Adams is a perfect 7-for-7 on stolen base attempts.
- Like many NCAA programs, Southern has used a multitude of arms this season, with 20 pitchers combining for a 7.30 ERA in 207 innings of work.
- The pitching staff has 170 strikeouts and 122 walks on the season, while hitting 32 more batters.