No. 9 Mississippi State swept for second straight series, fall to Tennessee at home
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
After starting SEC play with seven wins in its first nine games, Mississippi State has now been swept on back-to-back weekends. The nation’s No. 9 team fell to unranked Tennessee 7-2 on Sunday to fall to 26-10 overall and 7-8 in league action.
The Bulldogs dropped Friday’s opener 6-5 as the Volunteers broke a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the 8th. On Saturday, they found themselves in a 3-0 hole in the 2nd before falling 6-2.
On Sunday, as was the case in the first two games, Mississippi State was forced to play from behind, trailing 2-0 after one. The Bulldogs found the scoreboard in the bottom of the 4th on a sacrifice groundout to make it 2-1, but Henry Ford’s sac grounder and Blake Grimmer’s RBI single put Tennessee up 5-1 in the sixth. Reed Stallman cut it to 5-2 in the 7th on an RBI single before a pair of Volunteer runs in the 9th put the game out of reach.
The Bulldogs were held to six hits on the day, thanks in part to Evan Blanco. The senior left-hander picked up the win behind 6.2 strong innings, yielding two runs on five hits while striking out six and walking none. Charlie Forster was tagged with the loss after allowing four runs on four hits with five strikeouts and a walk in 5.1 innings.
Mississippi State and Tennessee return to action on Tuesday. The Bulldogs head to Birmingham to face Samford while the Volunteers (24-12, 7-8 SEC) host UNC Asheville.
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Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
