STARKVILLE, Miss. – Not much went right for No. 6 Vanderbilt in a 17-2 series opening loss at No. 21 Mississippi State on Friday night at Dudy Noble Field.
The Bulldogs (16-8, 3-1) jumped on Commodores’ (19-4, 2-2) starter Tyler Beede in the first inning with back-to-back singles before the right-hander struck out Wes Rea for the first out. The Bulldogs third single of the inning loaded the bases and Beede’s first walk of the night pushed the first run of the game across. A pair of groundouts and a wild pitch made it 4-0 State after one.
The Dores began to unravel in the second when two errors in the frame led to two more Mississippi State runs. The Vandy defense finally came completely unraveled in the third inning with two more errors that led to five Bulldog runs and chased Beede from the game. Mississippi State scored five runs on one hit, two VU errors and three walks in the inning to take an 11-1 lead after three innings.
The Vanderbilt offense seemed to be putting a rally together in the fifth when Ro Coleman led off with a single and was followed by singles from Dansby Swanson and Bryan Reynolds. But the Commodores scored only one run on Zander Wiel’s sacrifice fly when Xavier Turner’s double play ended the inning.
Beede took the loss giving up a career-high 11 runs, five earned, on six hits with five walks and five strikeouts over 2.2 innings. Mississippi State starter Preston Brown picked up the win with eight strong innings allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
With his single in the fifth inning, Swanson has now reached base in all 23 games this season. Brett Pirtle led the Bulldogs with three hits and Seth Heck drove in four runs.
Vanderbilt’s five errors are a season-high and the most for a VU team since 2012. The Commodores had not made more than two errors in any game this season. The Dores also issued a season-high nine walks with five of those walks coming around to score Friday night.
The Commodores send lefty Jared Miller to the mound tomorrow to face fellow southpaw Ross Mitchell. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
