Bulldog Rally Falls Short Against No. 16 Missouri

Friday, April 29

Starkville

6:00 PM

Mississippi State

25-25, 3-16

#16 Missouri

35-12, 10-9

Missouri

Mississippi State

Bulldog Rally Falls Short Against No. 16 Missouri

April 29, 2016 | Softball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A 126-minute weather delay led into a back-and-forth contest that saw the Mississippi State softball team (25-25, 3-16 SEC) fall short to No. 16 Missouri (35-12, 10-9 SEC) in game one of their Southeastern Conference series.

State rallied from five runs down to pull within one, but were unable to draw any closer before falling 8-5. Senior Kayla Winkfield and junior Caroline Seitz led the Bulldogs offense as each posted identical 2-for-4 nights at the plate with two RBI and one run scored.

“There is a lot of fight and bark in these dogs,” head coach Vann Stuedeman said. “We are always going to keep throwing punches and keep barking along. We are not going to ever go away, it is a part of our covenants. I feel like we just ran out of innings there.”

The Tigers jumped out front early on a sacrifice fly to score a runner who reached third after a State error to give MU a lead 1-0 on the unearned run in the top of the first and a solo homer to straightaway center field in the second gave the visitors a 2-0 lead.

In the third, a Bulldog mishap allowed MU to bring across three more baserunners to go on top 5-0 with two of those runs going down as unearned.

As usual, State would not go away as a pair of walks and a wild pitch put two Bulldogs in scoring position. Winkfield came through for MSU with a high chopper up the middle to score two. Seitz followed with a single of her who to score Winkfield from third, bringing the score to 5-3 in the home half of the third.

The Bulldogs used a leadoff walk to add another in the fourth as a sacrifice bunt attempt from freshman Emily Heimberger went wrong for the Tigers as an error plated the leadoff runner and placed Heimberger at third to make it a one-run affair.

MU answered immediately with a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly and a single to extend its lead, this time to 7-4 in the top of the fifth.

Once again the Bulldogs answered, as a solo home run from Seitz off the scoreboard in left brought the MU lead back down to two through five.

The Tigers continued the back-and-forth in the top of the sixth with a solo homer the put them back on top by three runs, by a score of 8-5.

In search of some late-inning magic, the Bulldogs nearly struck after a leadoff single from junior Alexis Silkwood and a MU error gave MSU two on with no outs. Following a fielder's choice, State had runners on the corners with one out, but the excitement came to an end when a hard-hit line drive was snagged for a double play to secure the 8-5 win for the Tigers.

Paige Lowary (19-6) picked up the win for MU in the complete-game effort while having allowed MSU's five runs, four earned, on seven hits and three walks. Lowary also struck out three Bulldogs on the night.

Silkwood (4-10) suffered the complete-game loss, despite striking out six to mark the 30th time in her career that the junior has struck out five or more in a game. The East Alton, Illinois native surrendered eight runs, five unearned, on 11 hits and one walk.

The series now shifts to Saturday for game two at 2 p.m. CT which will air nationally on SEC Network. MSU has won game two in its last two series with the Tigers.

For more information on the MSU softball program, follow “HailStateSB” on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can also find all-access coverage of the Bulldogs on SnapChat by searching for “HailStateSnap.”