Bulldogs Drop Series Finale To No. 4 Tennessee

Sunday, April 14

Starkville

12:00 PM

Mississippi State

29-12, 9-9

#4 Tennessee

32-8, 12-3

Tennessee

Mississippi State

Bulldogs Drop Series Finale To No. 4 Tennessee

April 14, 2024 | Softball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

By: Brian Ogden, Associate Director/Communications

STARKVILLE – A four-run third inning proved to be the difference on Sunday and No. 16/17 Mississippi State lost, 7-3, to No. 4/4 Tennessee.

The Lady Vols jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three and half innings before Paige Cook cut into the lead with a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth. That forced a pitching change, but Tennessee's Payton Gottshall did not allow another hit.

"Anytime you can take a game against a team like Tennessee like we did Friday night, it's huge. With our goals for this program and what we are working towards, we were frustrated. We played our best out there. They are a great team, great pitching staff. You saw that all weekend long. I really thought Payton Gottshall was phenomenal. She really kept us on our toes. We had a hard time adjusting to her plans."

The Bulldogs (29-12, 9-9 SEC) threatened in the sixth, putting two runners on with only one out thanks to a walk and hit-by-pitch. After Cook took what she thought was ball four for a called second strike, she lined out hard to center, and Kylee Edwards flew out to deep left to end the inning.

Josey Marron threw the final 4.1 innings in relief, allowing two runs on a fifth-inning homer and seventh-inning single. She struck out five.

Quotables

Samantha Ricketts on the series results...
"I think a lot of the offensive struggles goes back and starts with the staff. We can do a better job at having them prepared for both arms. We spent a lot of time for [Karlyn] Pickens and that showed a little bit. Credit to them, they are a great team, a great pitching staff. They came out ready to go, and they answered back from the Friday night loss really well. I think we have higher expectations. We have to make plays behind our pitchers. We gave them far too many extra chances. It definitely should have been a closer game for us there, as well as having quality at-bats. It's something for us that we are talking about. How can we use these as lessons and finish strong? We still think that all of our goals, when we are talking about postseason and setting us up for success, are still in front of us. We have to continue to learn and get better week by week.

Samantha Ricketts on Paige Cook's home run...
"Everybody knows Paige. She's had some really good years for us the past couple of years, so she's going to get pitched tough. Her and Madi [Kennedy], I think they're really feeling that right now. One of the best things about Paige is the way that she bounces back, and it's really hard to keep her down. She does a great job of keeping on and finding ways to get on for her team. Even when she's not seeing that success that she knows she can have, she always believes that she will. I think that's part of the challenge, and it came up big for us there as she swung within the plan. That was what we were looking to do there, going a little bit more opposite field was the plan with that one today off of [Karlyn] Pickens. It was a big knockout punch. We wanted to see both pitchers today, so we were about halfway there with our plan. We just didn't really finish our execution."

Paige Cook on the series attendance record...
"We've talked about that a lot this weekend, just seeing how far we've come with all of our fans out there supporting us. We have always talked about how we are such an energy-based team. When the crowd brings the energy, it lifts us up even more. Just knowing that they are there, backing us up means a lot to us."

Quick Hitters

Packing the Park – Today's attendance was 1,439, which is the 11th-largest crowd in program history … the total attendance for the weekend was 4,042, making it the largest crowd for a three-day series in program history.

Jessie Blaine – Reached twice on a walk and a hit-by-pitch.

Paige Cook – Hit her fourth home run of the season … drove in three RBIs for her fifth multi-RBI game of the year … now has 26 career homers, which is 10th in program history … boasts 30 career multi-RBI games, which is tied for eighth in MSU history.

Ella Wesolowski – Singled and walked twice to reach in every plate appearance.

Scoring Recap

Top 2
With two outs, Taylor Pannell hit a solo homer to left field.
No. 4 Tennessee 1, No. 16 Mississippi State 0

Top 3
Laura Mealer singled up the middle to lead off. Kiki Milloy walked, advancing Mealer. Both runners stole successfully before McKenna Gibson doubled to right center to score them. Amanda Ahlin came in the pinch run for Gibson, and Zaida Puni hit a two-run homer to center field.
No. 4 Tennessee 5, No. 16 Mississippi State 0

Bottom 4
With one out, Jessie Blaine walked. Ella Weslowski singled to the shortstop, and Kiarra Sells came in to pinch run at first. Paige Cook hit a three-run homer to right-center field.
No. 4 Tennessee 5, No. 16 Mississippi State 3

Top 5
Zaida Puni hit a leadoff homer to right field.
No. 4 Tennessee 6, No. 16 Mississippi State 3

Top 7
With two outs, Puni singled through the right side. Rylie West was hit by a pitch, forcing Puni to second. Sophia Nugent singled to left field, scoring Puni.
No. 4 Tennessee 7, No. 16 Mississippi State 3

Next Up

The Bulldogs will make up a pair of games at home next week. State hosts Memphis at 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 16. MSU will then welcome South Alabama at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17. The Bulldogs are off for the weekend due to their bye week in the conference schedule.

For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB."