Another frustrating loss finds Bulldogs in 6-5 defeat vs. No. 11 Auburn on Friday night

Mississippi State found another way to lose a baseball game on Friday night in Auburn.

After battling back from a three-run deficit, State gave up two base runners with two outs in the seventh. The second of those was an RBI double from Cooper McMurray breaking a tie and giving the No. 11 Tigers a 6-5 win.

The frustrating loss from the Diamond Dawgs dropped them to 6-13 in SEC play.

“I think it’s two out hits. They got a couple of big two-out hits and opportunities and we didn’t get them,” coach Chris Lemonis said. “Our guys are playing as tough as can be but we’re a play away. The effort was high, we just come out a play short.”

Pico Kohn tried to steal 7.0 innings on Friday night and keep the game tied but it didn’t happen. The junior LHP had thrown over 115 pitches and had two outs in the seventh before walking a batter. McMurray would then make him pay with an RBI double into right that would score the runner all the way from first.

“I thought he was really good,” Lemonis said of Kohn. “They have so many lefties and we don’t have many lefties out of the pen so we stayed with him and McMurray got him.”

It was the fourth-straight loss by State in which the Bulldogs had a multiple run lead in the game but would lose. Kohn threw 6.2 frames with nine hits, six runs, one walk and eight strikeouts. Ben Davis came in after him and threw a scoreless 1.1 innings of relief.

The Bulldog offense got seven hits in the game and had an early 2-0 lead on stout pitcher Samuel Dutton. A two-run home run from Noah Sullivan in the fourth inning would break the scoreless start.

Kohn would immediately give that lead back after loading the bases with no outs. A one-out RBI single and sacrifice fly tied the game then a two-run double would give the Tigers a 4-2 lead.

That lead would grow to 5-2 heading to the seventh inning before the Bulldogs would get something going. The first two reached in the top of the frame and then Joe Powell smashed a three-run homer over the left field wall to tie the game. Just like in the fourth inning, that would be short lived as the Tigers would get the winning run the next frame.

State’s offense was all homers on the night with the Bulldogs scoring all five runs via the long ball. Meanwhile, the Tigers came through with the clutch hits as they had four two-out hits and scored four of the six runs off of those.

Ace Reese led the Bulldogs with a 2-for-3 game and Powell and Sullivan had the home runs, but Hunter Hines and Reed Stallman went 0-for-8 and State struck out 12 times to just one walk.

The Bulldogs will try to even up the series on Saturday when they play at 6 p.m. on SEC Network+.

“Keep coming out and playing with the same effort,” Lemonis said. “You play the game long enough balls bounce and go your way. I love the effort right now. I know we’ve had two tough losses this week but I love the effort.”

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