Jordan moves reached base streak to 22 games with two-hit night in series opener versus Commodores
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A run in the first and one in the ninth was not enough for No. 2 Mississippi State baseball in a 6-2 loss at No. 3 Vanderbilt on Friday (April 23) night at Hawkins Field.
Kamren James had a hand in both runs for Mississippi State (28-9, 10-6 SEC) with a first inning RBI and a ninth inning run scored. Vanderbilt (30-6, 12-4 SEC) scored four in the fourth and two in the eighth to account for their scoring.
Rowdey Jordan moved his reached base streak to 22 games with a 2-for-4 night at the plate. He led off the game with a double and came around to score the first run of the contest. James reached on an error in the ninth, scored a run and drove in the first run of the game with a ground out.
Luke Hancock singled to drive in one run and Tanner Allen was hit by a pitch to round out the base runners for MSU.
For the 17th straight game, Mississippi State fanned 10-or-more batters, as Christian MacLeod fanned seven and Stone Simmons added three more to reach double digits. MacLeod (3-3) allowed four runs on four hits to go along with the strikeouts in the loss, while Simmons gave up two runs on three hits. Chase Patrick closed out the game with one inning of work and one hit allowed.
Kumar Rocker (9-1) allowed two runs on three hits in a complete game victory. He fanned eight and hit one batter. Isaiah Thomas and Cooper Davis each drove in two RBIs and CJ Rodriguez went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI.
Quotable
Head coach Chris Lemonis
On Christian MacLeod
CL: I thought Christian was really good for three innings, as good as I have seen him. He really kept them off balance, but just lost the strike zone in the fourth inning … They are a lineup you can’t throw a 2-0 fastballs to. He lost his changeup as the game went on and bounced a couple of curveballs and that just put him behind in counts and they took advantage of it.
Scoring Recap
Top First
Rowdey Jordanhit a leadoff double and advanced to third on a Tanner Allenflyout. Kamren Jamesdrove in the first RBI of the game with a groundout to shortstop.
Mississippi State 1, Vanderbilt 0
Bottom Fourth
Jack Bulger and Dominic Keegan walked back-to-back which set up CJ Rodriguez to tie the ballgame with an RBI single to left. Isaiah Thomas hit a two-RBI single with one out to give Vanderbilt the lead and Enrique Bradfield Jr. capped off the scoring with an RBI single to right field with two outs.
Vanderbilt 4, Mississippi State 1
Bottom Eighth
Rodriguez walked on four pitches and advanced to second on a single by Parker Noland. Thomas followed with a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, before Davis singled up the middle to score two more.
Vanderbilt 6, Mississippi State 1
Top Ninth
James reached second on a throwing error by the third baseman and Luke Hancock singled through the left side to push the final run of the game across.
Vanderbilt 6, Mississippi State 2
Up Next
Mississippi State and Vanderbilt meet at 7 p.m. for the middle game in the series at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 24 on ESPNU.