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Mississippi State falls in Game of the Year contender Game 1 at Athens Regional

Mississippi State beat writer Colin Dammsby: Colin Damms3 hours agoColintheshots95

The Super Regional Battle of the Bulldogs started off with a bang in Game One.

Actually, make that several bangs.

Mississippi State and Georgia combined for 11 home runs in a Game of the Year contender in Athens. The clash between the two best offenses in the SEC lived up to the hype in the first matchup. Only one team could come out on top, and it just wasn’t the day for MSU. They led 7-0 early, but couldn’t outlast the offensive awakening of Georgia in a 13-12 Game One loss.

Mississippi State got onto Georgia starter Joey Volchko in the second inning to jump out to an early lead. Reed Stallman launched a three-run home run into the trees in right field after Jacob Parker and Vytas Valincius got aboard, and it was the start of a six-run inning. Ace Reese got one to fall in left field after a fielding error on a drive to the wall, which got Kevin Milewski and Bryce Chance home, and Parker added another RBI on his second trip to the plate of the inning.

Milewski added a solo home run in the fourth inning to make it a 7-0 advantage for Mississippi State, but the momentum would stop there for the time being.

Georgia responded with a ruthless wake-up on the second run through the batting order. The hosting Bulldogs woke up with three home runs and a two-run double to cut the lead to 7-5, and the following inning would take the lead 9-7. They knocked out starter Tomas Valincius in the process, with his seven earned runs the most all year in a stellar sophomore season.

The Bulldogs turned to Jack Bauer first out of the pen, who went 1.1 innings with three earned runs before Ben Davis took over in the seventh. It was a tough game-state for either pitcher to enter, as the teams began to trade blows late.

Mississippi State answered late with a pair of runs in the sixth and one run each in the seventh and eighth innings. A second solo shot of the day for Milewski and a homer from Gehrig Frei were answered with a solo shot from Rylan Lujo, which was subsequently answered by solo shots from Ryder Woodson and Ace Reese. A hit by pitch for Kevin Milewski with loaded bases walked in another run in the eighth to make it 12-10 for State going into the final six outs for UGA.

Davis had a shaky start to the bottom of the eighth, hitting the leadoff batter and allowing a base hit from the second to put the tying run aboard.

Davis caught a break with a Rylan Lujo hit-by-pitch overturned after he leaned into it, making it strike three, but O’Connor turned to the bullpen with Michael O’Shaughnessy at the plate. Dane Burns came in for a lefty-on-lefty matchup, but his second pitch was sent to the scoreboard as the lead changed hands yet again.

The three-run blast put Georgia up 13-12, and the inning wasn’t done yet. Two more got aboard and O’Connor turned to Maddox Webb to get the third out and stop the bleeding. He picked up a huge strikeout to send the game into the ninth with the top of the order due up for MSU.

Ace Reese got aboard as the tying run with a double following a groundout from Gehrig Frei, and Noah Sullivan drew a 4-0 walk to put the go-ahead run at first. Justin Byrd was on the mound to try and close out for Georgia, and had to go head-to-head with Freshman of the Year finalist Jacob Parker to get there.

Parker had walked three times on the day, but wound up fighting to stay alive in the biggest at-bat of his career so far. He bravely took a low ball over the plate on a 1-2 count, but popped up on his next swing to put State on its last out.

It came down to Vytas Valincius, who nearly found a deep shot in left before it hooked foul, but eventually went down swinging for the final out.

Game Two is set for 11 a.m. CT on Sunday in a do-or-die matchup for Mississippi State

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