Jackson State falls 3-1 to Mississippi State at Lafayette Regional

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana – One day after recording its first ever NCAA postseason victory, the Jackson State baseball team was not able to keep the momentum going against Mississippi State (39-22) on day two of the NCAA Lafayette Regional. The Bulldogs used a two run sixth inning to pick up a 3-1 win over the Tigers at “Tigue” Moore Field.

With the loss JSU faces Louisiana Sunday at 1 p.m. in the second elimination game of the regional. Jackson state played a clean game, but MSU came through with timely hitting in the sixth to secure the win.

Desmond Russell (9-5) recorded his ninth complete game in the losing effort. In nine innings of work he allowed three runs on seven hits, while striking out seven batters. Prior to MSU rallying in the sixth, Russell retired 11 straight batters.

Mississippi State pitchers Ben Bracewell and Jonathan Holder held the Tigers to three hits. Holder (7-1) pitched 5.1 innings in relief to pick up the win for the Bulldogs.

 

“We needed to take advantage of some opportunities,” said JSU head coach Omar Johnson.

“Mississippi State pitched awesome, they pitched well. We knew that they were able to do that from some of the information we had on them. We had a couple opportunities to score runs and left them out there, but you have to give their guys some credit. That guy made some pitches when he needed to make pitches. They’re a good team and are coached well.”

Gary Thomas scored JSU’s only run in the fourth inning, tying the game at 1-1. Thomas singled to get on base and Bracewell walked the next three batters to score Thomas.

Thomas finished the game with a hit and a run for JSU. Tilur Smith recorded a hit (double) and a walk for JSU and Charles Tillery posted JSU’s third hit of the game.

JSU’s Post Game Quotes
Omar Johnson (HC)

On Desmond Russell’s complete game: “It gives us an opportunity to have a lot of guys available tomorrow. When you’re in an elimination game like we are tomorrow, you need as many arms as you can.”

 

On the team’s confidence after the UL victory: “Games are about matchups, so we’ll try to put the best guy out there to match up with them. We had confidence today. You have to take advantage of your opportuni­ties. We’re prepared for tomorrow.”

 

On offensive struggles: “We have to find a way to create some offense. We faced some outstanding pitch­ing: Holder, Robichaux. Those guys are really good pitchers. They proved that throughout the year. You have to take advantage of your opportunities. Not necessarily hitting more, it’s when you get your opportunities to get a situational hit and score runs, you have to do it. Just like the time their kid moved up on the ball in the dirt, it got him on third base with less than two outs; they hit a fly ball and scored a run. You have to take advantage of that. It’s the same thing when we didn’t turn that double play. Without those two situations it’s still a 1-1 game.”

JSU SP Desmond Russell Quotes

On the sixth inning: “I’ve got to give it to them. They played good. We played good. I just messed up on a few pitches. We have to capitalize a little bit more. Other than that I felt pretty great.”

On what his complete game does for the team: “We only used three pitchers so far. We have confidence in each and every pitcher in our bullpen. It was good that I threw a complete game to give them an opportunity to be fresh.”

JSU 1B Tilur Smith Quotes

On MSU relief pitcher Jonathan Holder’s performance: “His curveball was good. We really just wanted to hit the fastball...we missed a couple. He just had us off-balance.”

BOX SCORE

COURTESY JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS