Sunday, April 2
Starkville
12:00 PM
Mississippi State
23-13, 3-5
4
vs
5
#10 Arkansas
27-9, 8-4
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Arkansas
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Mississippi State
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Bulldogs Lose Late To No. 10 Arkansas
April 02, 2023 | Softball
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State softball saw a late lead slip away in the top of the seventh, falling to No. 10 Arkansas 5-4 on Sunday. The Bulldogs had taken a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth, but a triple and a homer to open the seventh proved to be the difference.
"That's what happens when you play a top-10 team. They are going to capitalize on mistakes, and we have to clean it up all the way around," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "I was glad to see some fight out of the lineup. I thought, offensively, that's kind of what we've been looking for the last few weeks. I think there are some bright spots, but when you're playing a top-10 team like that you can't make mistakes. Anywhere really in their lineup, they're gonna make you pay, we just made a couple too many."
Arkansas (27-9, 8-4 SEC) scored three runs in the fourth with the help of two Bulldog errors in the outfield, both of which allowed runs to score. MSU (23-13, 3-5 SEC) responded with a two-run homer from Aquana Brownlee in the bottom half of the inning before another two-run shot from Matalasi Faapito gave State the lead in the sixth.
Faapito also had a single, giving her her second multi-hit game of the year. She then came in in relief after the game-winning homer in the seventh and retired all three batters she faced.
"It was good to see them bounce back. Just making sure we have each other's backs up and down the lineup. We made a couple errors early and were able to bounce right back. I thought the pitchers got us out of some jams, and the hitters kind of picked them up in the sixth inning as well. It's good to see some fight, it shows me that we still have some fight left in us the rest of the year, and that's kind of the message. We aren't even halfway through the SEC right now, and we have to fight and continue to show up for each other."
Samantha Ricketts on a learning experience type of series…
"It's always an opportunity to learn what we can do moving forward. We can't do anything to go back and change pitches or errors or anything that happened during the weekend, but we can learn from the opportunity and set us up for next weekend. We still have a lot of SEC games ahead of us, so it's trying to learn and reframe some of the lessons moving forward."
Matalasi Faapito on the team's takeaways from this weekend…
"I feel like this series is definitely a learning lesson for us. Obviously, it doesn't feel good, but you know, we just have to turn the page and push forward for next weekend and the weekends after that. I think it's good that we lose sometimes. We learn from things. We learn about our own mistakes and from each other, and we come together as a sisterhood and work for each other."
Matalasi Faapito on hitting her home run…
"Every single time I go up to bat, obviously I want to hit a home run, but I just knew watching her pitch to me yesterday, I was like I need to get this girl. I'm just glad the outcome was what I wanted."
Aquana Brownlee – Hit a two-run homer … reached in all three plate appearances with help of a hit-by-pitch and a walk.
Matalasi Faapito – Hit a two-run homer to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth … pitched in relief in the seventh, retiring all three batters she faced … has now homered in the same game she's pitched in six times at MSU (30 appearances).
Macy Graf – Walked to extend her reached-base streak to all eight of State's SEC games.
Aspen Wesley – Struck out four in 4.0 innings of work.
Kacie Hoffmann led off with a single to right field and advanced to second on Lauren Camenzind's sacrifice bunt. Hannah Gammill drew a walk before Kristina Foreman singled to left field. Hoffmann scored when the left fielder mishandled the ball, and that allowed Gammill to reach third. Atalyia Rijo laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Gammill and advance Foreman to second. Reagan Johnson singled to center field, and Foreman scored when the throw to the plate was wild.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0
Bottom 4
Paige Cook drew a walk and scored on Aquana Brownlee's two-run homer to left field.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 2
Bottom 6
Nadia Barbary reached base on a throwing error by the pitcher. She scored on Matalasi Faapito's two-run homer to center field.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 4
Top 7
Reagan Johnson tripled down the right field line and scored on Raigan Kramer's two-run homer to center field.
No. 10 Arkansas 5, Mississippi State 4
"That's what happens when you play a top-10 team. They are going to capitalize on mistakes, and we have to clean it up all the way around," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "I was glad to see some fight out of the lineup. I thought, offensively, that's kind of what we've been looking for the last few weeks. I think there are some bright spots, but when you're playing a top-10 team like that you can't make mistakes. Anywhere really in their lineup, they're gonna make you pay, we just made a couple too many."
Arkansas (27-9, 8-4 SEC) scored three runs in the fourth with the help of two Bulldog errors in the outfield, both of which allowed runs to score. MSU (23-13, 3-5 SEC) responded with a two-run homer from Aquana Brownlee in the bottom half of the inning before another two-run shot from Matalasi Faapito gave State the lead in the sixth.
Faapito also had a single, giving her her second multi-hit game of the year. She then came in in relief after the game-winning homer in the seventh and retired all three batters she faced.
Quotables
Samantha Ricketts on seeing her team fight back after the game yesterday…"It was good to see them bounce back. Just making sure we have each other's backs up and down the lineup. We made a couple errors early and were able to bounce right back. I thought the pitchers got us out of some jams, and the hitters kind of picked them up in the sixth inning as well. It's good to see some fight, it shows me that we still have some fight left in us the rest of the year, and that's kind of the message. We aren't even halfway through the SEC right now, and we have to fight and continue to show up for each other."
Samantha Ricketts on a learning experience type of series…
"It's always an opportunity to learn what we can do moving forward. We can't do anything to go back and change pitches or errors or anything that happened during the weekend, but we can learn from the opportunity and set us up for next weekend. We still have a lot of SEC games ahead of us, so it's trying to learn and reframe some of the lessons moving forward."
Matalasi Faapito on the team's takeaways from this weekend…
"I feel like this series is definitely a learning lesson for us. Obviously, it doesn't feel good, but you know, we just have to turn the page and push forward for next weekend and the weekends after that. I think it's good that we lose sometimes. We learn from things. We learn about our own mistakes and from each other, and we come together as a sisterhood and work for each other."
Matalasi Faapito on hitting her home run…
"Every single time I go up to bat, obviously I want to hit a home run, but I just knew watching her pitch to me yesterday, I was like I need to get this girl. I'm just glad the outcome was what I wanted."
Quick Hitters
Boom Or Bust – All of MSU's scoring in the series this weekend came via the home run … Paige Cook, Aquana Brownlee and Matalasi Faapito hit the three homers, and Chloe Malau'ulu had a home run taken off the board on Saturday.Aquana Brownlee – Hit a two-run homer … reached in all three plate appearances with help of a hit-by-pitch and a walk.
Matalasi Faapito – Hit a two-run homer to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth … pitched in relief in the seventh, retiring all three batters she faced … has now homered in the same game she's pitched in six times at MSU (30 appearances).
Macy Graf – Walked to extend her reached-base streak to all eight of State's SEC games.
Aspen Wesley – Struck out four in 4.0 innings of work.
Scoring Recap
Top 4 Kacie Hoffmann led off with a single to right field and advanced to second on Lauren Camenzind's sacrifice bunt. Hannah Gammill drew a walk before Kristina Foreman singled to left field. Hoffmann scored when the left fielder mishandled the ball, and that allowed Gammill to reach third. Atalyia Rijo laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Gammill and advance Foreman to second. Reagan Johnson singled to center field, and Foreman scored when the throw to the plate was wild.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0
Bottom 4
Paige Cook drew a walk and scored on Aquana Brownlee's two-run homer to left field.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 2
Bottom 6
Nadia Barbary reached base on a throwing error by the pitcher. She scored on Matalasi Faapito's two-run homer to center field.
No. 10 Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 4
Top 7
Reagan Johnson tripled down the right field line and scored on Raigan Kramer's two-run homer to center field.
No. 10 Arkansas 5, Mississippi State 4
On Deck
Mississippi State will head to Bryan-College Station, Texas, next weekend for a Saturday-Monday series with the No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies. All three games will be broadcast on the SEC Network as the league's showcase series that weekend. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. CT on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Monday night meeting will begin at 6 p.m.Follow the Bulldogs
For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hannah Camenzind (2-1)
L: Hawk, Kenley (3-4)
S: Chenise Delce (2)
Batting:
3B: Reagan Johnson 1
HR: Raigan Kramer 1
RBI: Raigan Kramer 2 ; Atalyia Rijo 1
SH: Lauren Camenzind 1 ; Atalyia Rijo 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Reagan Johnson 1 ; Raigan Kramer 1 ; Kacie Hoffmann 1 ; Hannah Gammill 1 ; Kristina Foreman 1
HBP: Rylin Hedgecock 1
Batting:
HR: Brownlee, Aquana 1 ; Faapito, Matalasi 1
RBI: Brownlee, Aquana 2 ; Faapito, Matalasi 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Cook, Paige 1 ; Brownlee, Aquana 1 ; Barbary, Nadia 1 ; Faapito, Matalasi 1
HBP: Brownlee, Aquana 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
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1
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2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
1
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
/ SoftballINF
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INF
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OF
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P
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