STARKVILLE, Miss. ? After jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead, Kentucky?s bats went silent as No. 29 Mississippi State rallied for a 12-4 victory on Friday night at Polk-Dement Stadium.
The loss was the Wildcats? second straight as they fell to 19-18 on the year and 2-13 in the Southeastern Conference. It was also the eighth straight Friday night loss in conference play for Kentucky. The Bulldogs improve to 26-10 overall and 8-7 in the league with their third straight victory.
The two teams meet in game two of the series on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. Going to the mound for Kentucky will be junior left-hander Aaron Tennyson (4-1, 3.89), who earned the win in the Wildcats win over No. 23 Auburn last Saturday. Mississippi State will counter with senior right-hander Todd Doolittle (4-3, 3.57). The game can be heard on WLXO 96.1-FM in Lexington as well as online at www.UKathletics.com.
Early on it looked like Kentucky would run away with the game. The Wildcats tagged Mississippi State starter Alan Johnson for four runs on seven hits in just 1 2/3 innings. It was the shortest outing of the year for Johnson, who entered with a 3.28 earned-run average.
With one out in the first, Antone DeJesus and Shaun Lehmann singled before Michael Bertram walked to load the bases. An errant pick off attempt by catcher Thomas Berkery plated two runs for an early lead. Bertram later scored on Billy Grace?s ground out to second for a 3-0 lead.
In the second, J.P. Lowen doubled to lead off and came home for a 4-0 advantage on J.B. Schmidt?s single up the middle. DeJesus and Lehmann followed with singles, but Kentucky was unable to build on its lead.
Jamie Gant replaced Johnson after Lehmann?s single and was the first of three pitchers out of the bullpen to shut the door on Kentucky. Gant allowed one hit over four innings and struck out four to earn his first win over the year.
Gant, Mike Valentine and Saunders Ramsey combined gave up just one hit over the final 6 2/3 innings. Kentucky managed to get men on base with three walks, two errors and a hit by pitch, but only one runner made it past second base. The Wildcats stranded 11 in the game.
Mississippi State took charge in the fourth with four runs. With one out, Ed Easley and Mitch Moreland laced back-to-back singles followed up by Bunky Kateon?s RBI double. Craig Snipp then replaced starter Kalen Gibson and got the first batter to strike out before walking Jeffrey Rea to load the bases.
Brad Corley then provided the big blow when he fought a pitch off the hands the opposite way down the right-field line for a bases clearing triple and a 5-4 lead.
Snipp took the loss after giving up five runs on five hits in three innings. He fell to 2-3 on the year.
In the seventh, the Bulldogs put the game away with six runs, aided by four Kentucky walks in the inning. Thomas Berkery belted a two-run home run to start the scoring and four other State players drove in a run in the inning. Overall, the Wildcats walked 10 batters, six of whom came in to score.
Mississippi State added a run in the ninth for the final margin.
Notes
Kentucky lost its eighth straight Friday SEC game ? The Wildcats lost consecutive games for the first time since April 2-3 at Florida ? Kentucky has led in eight of its 13 conference losses ? Kentucky had seven hits through the first two innings ? Kentucky loaded the bases in the first and second innings, both times with John Shelby at the plate ? Kentucky allowed 12 runs, which is the most since 18 to Tennessee on April 8 ? Kentucky snapped its streak of committing an error in 22 consecutive games ? The top three batters In the order produced six of Kentucky?s nine hits ? Shaun Lehmann had his 11th multi-hit game in his last 16 outings ? Lehmann leads the team with 16 multi-hit games ? Shelby extended his hit streak to a season-best five ?
Mississippi State 12, Kentucky 4
April 22, 2005
at Starkville, Miss.
Kentucky – 310 000 000 – 4 9 0 (19-18, 2-13)
Mississippi State – 010 400 61X – 12 14 3 (26-10, 8-7)
Pitchers: Kentucky – K. Gibson; C. Snipp(4); G. Dombrowsk(7); T. Warner(8). Mississippi State – Johnson, A; Gant(2); Valentine(6); Ramsey(9).
Win-Gant(1-0) Loss-C. Snipp(2-3) T-3:27 A-6568
HR MS – Berkery (4).
