NIL
Mississippi State baseball tops Northeastern, makes NCAA regional final
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Mississippi State baseball will play for the NCAA tournament Tallahassee Regional championship.
The No. 3 seed Bulldogs (36-22) took down No. 2 Northeastern 3-2 in an NCAA tournament elimination game on June 1 at Dick Howser Stadium. It was the second time MSU has beaten the Huskies (49-11) in the regional.
It’s also the second straight season that Mississippi State will be in the regional final. Mississippi State must beat No. 1 Florida State (40-14) twice to win the regional, beginning with Game 1 on June 1 (5 p.m. CT). The Seminoles torched MSU 10-3 on May 31.
Mississippi State took an early lead on Northeastern
The Bulldogs were seeing Aiven Cabral’s pitches right away. They took a 1-0 lead four batters into the game after two singles and an RBI double by Hunter Hines. A Bryce Chance groundout on the next at-bat gave MSU a 2-0 lead.
Mississippi State kept getting hard hits off Cabral, but struggled after that to drive in runs. Through four innings, Mississippi State had seven hits and only one strikeout. The Bulldogs chased Cabral after back-to-back singles to lead off the fifth inning and added one run from a Hines sacrifice fly.
Evan Siary gave Mississippi State a great start
Evan Siary cruised through his start on the mound. Northeastern didn’t have a baserunner until a single by Carmelo Musacchia in the fifth inning. He came around to score after a stolen base and a single from Alex Lane for Northeastern’s first run.
Siary was pulled in the seventh inning after allowing a leadoff double. Nate Williams, his replacement, walked two batters and plunked another with two outs to score a run charged to Siary. Otherwise, Siary was phenomenal with three hits allowed, no walks and nine strikeouts.
Reliever Stone Simmons finished the game with 2⅓ shutout innings.
Mississippi State left runners on base
The Bulldogs should’ve had more runs but numerous hard-hit balls found the Northeastern gloves. They left 11 runners on base.
One moment stood out in the fifth inning when MSU had Ace Reese at third base with two outs. Bryce Chance lasered a ball straight up the middle that looked like it was going to land for a single. Instead, Northeastern relief pitcher Cooper McGrath stuck his glove out and caught the ball right in front of his face to end the inning.
The Bulldogs also had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth inning but didn’t score any runs with a strikeout and groundout.
They could’ve add two insurance runs in the eighth inning with two runners on base and no outs, but again didn’t score.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.