Box score


STARKVILLE, Miss. – Three Mississippi State pitchers combined for an eight-hit shutout to lead the eighth-ranked Bulldogs to a 3-0 win over University of South Alabama baseball Wednesday at Dudy Noble Field.

MSU right-hander Preston Brown tossed four shutout innings before Ross Mitchell (2-0) pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief to earn his second win of the season. Mitchell allowed three hits with a pair of strikeouts, while Brown allowed five hits in four innings with three walks and five strikeouts. Bulldog left-hander Jacob Lindgren tossed 1 2/3 innings in relief of Mitchell and recorded two strikeouts to earn his first save of the year.

Jaguar right-hander Matt Bell (1-2) suffered the loss in four innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts without issuing a walk. Jaguar right-hander Hunter Soleymani pitched three scoreless innings with a walk and a strikeout in relief of Bell. Dillon Buhrkuhl pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Soleymani, and also issued one walk with one strikeout.

Bell retired the final six batters he faced in the game, and combined with Soleymani and Buhrkuhl to hold MSU (11-4) hitless after the third inning.

South Alabama (5-7) threatened in the bottom of the first when it loaded the bases on consecutive one-out singles by Bud Collura and Hayden Jones, and a walk by Erik Hindmon. But Brown struck out Cole Gleason to end the inning and escape the jam.

The bottom of the first inning brought two Jaguar errors which led to two MSU runs. Jake Vickerson reached on a fielding error by Jones at first to lead off the inning, then advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt at first by Bell which sailed wide of the bag. Alex Detz followed with an RBI single through the right side of the infield to score Vickerson and give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Wes Rea singled to left-center to move Detz to third before Brett Pirtle singled to left-center field and double the MSU lead to 2-0.

Detz added the game's final run in the bottom of the third with a leadoff home run to right field.

USA threatened in the top of the fourth when Adam Ballew walked to lead off the inning, and Matt Bolger followed with an infield single to shortstop. After Drew LaBounty sacrificed both into scoring position, Brown pitched out of the jam with a strikeout and inning-ending flyout to left field off the bat of Collura.

In the eighth inning, Davis Knapp led off with a pinch-hit single to right field and Hindmon followed with a single back up the middle of the infield. But Mitchell secured the first out of the inning with a flyout to right field before Lindgren entered and rolled a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play on his first pitch of the game.

Jones went 3-for-4 with a double to lead South Alabama at the plate, while Detz finished 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored to lead MSU offensively.

"Matt Bell competed for us," head coach Mark Calvi said. "That's what you expect your older guys to do. He competed and kept us in the ballgame. It's unfortunate. He hurt himself when he threw that pickoff attempt away, but I give him a lot of credit because he showed some leadership after coming off of a rough outing (at Arkansas).

"Stats will lie. It's not always the team with the most hits that wins, it's when you get your hits. Thus far we have not done a very good job of hitting with men in scoring position. We outhit the eighth-ranked team in the country, and we lost 3-0. Our Achilles heel has been hitting with men in scoring position. Our pitching has been pretty good for the most part. We got another well-pitched game tonight from Bell, Soleymani and Buhrkuhl. Last night, Cameron Carleton came in and showed that he can help us. With this program, there are no moral victories. You either win or you lose. You either play well enough and get hits with men on base or you don't, and we haven't done that the last two nights."

South Alabama will return to action Friday at 6:30 p.m. when it hosts Southern Illinois in the first game of a three-game weekend series at Stanky Field.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).