When compared to game 1, game 2 was a much more enjoyable affair for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Bulldogs came out and ran right over the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Mississippi State baseball team showed its resiliency and proved that it could compete on this sort of stage.
Tuesday evening, the Bulldogs needed to show that they could be resilient and they certainly did just that. Mississippi State outhit the Commodores 14-4 and ended up winning by nearly a dozen runs. The Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt 13-2 in game 2 of the CWS finals.
Mississippi State was able to get its scoring started early.
With the Bulldogs as the home team for game 2 and in front of a crowd clad predominantly in maroon and white, Mississippi State scored its first run in the bottom of the 1st.
Mississippi State’s hot start propelled the Bulldogs to a dominant win over the Commodores
With two outs in the bottom of the 1st, Kamren James got on base thanks to a throwing error by Vandy. Luke Hancock then moved James home with an RBI single. Unfortunately for MSU’s absurd run differential in this game, Vanderbilt would tie things up in the top of the 2nd by way of a home run.
Thankfully, that didn’t really impact State much at all as Mississippi State tacked on four runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning.
Tanner Allen got the inning started off with a single and then scooted on over the 2nd base thanks to a wild pitch. Three straight walks later and Allen found himself walking across home plate, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead over Vanderbilt.
Scotty Dubrule then brought two more runs home with a single, putting MSU up 3-1. After some umpire shenanigans that involved checking replay to see if a ball was fouled off of Brad Cumbest’s bad, State ultimately loaded the bases up once again.
And thanks to another wild pitch, MSU found itself up 5-1 at the end of the 3rd.
MSU was able to cruise down the stretch as Houston Harding and Preston Johnson silenced Vandy
That early 5-1 lead for Mississippi State was more than enough for the Bulldogs to get a solid win.
MSU added another run in the bottom of the 4th, two more in the bottom of the 5th, and then five more in the bottom of the 7th. But thanks to the powerful pitching performances provided to Mississippi State by Houston Harding and Preston Johnson, the Bulldogs really didn’t need all of those runs, even if they were a ton of fun to watch.
Harding, on short rest, gave MSU a phenomenal start which set the Bulldogs up for success. Through 4.0 innings, Harding struck out four Vandy players and only yielded that one run, a home run.
Johnson then took over and finished the game out for Mississippi State, striking out seven through 5.0 innings and only allowing one run, a home run, as well.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs proved to be a resilient bunch after losing by six runs on Monday
Mississippi State needed to show that it could continue to fight. The Bulldogs have gone through several rough losses this year and have fallen to several really good teams this season.
But on Tuesday night, the Bulldogs won big. Mississippi State didn’t falter or fall short. The Bulldogs came out and won, which is exactly what they needed to do.
State is now just one win away from a national championship. These are the highest stakes that this team has played in.
No big deal.
None at all.
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