State takes win over Georgia
By By Marty Stamper/EMG sports assistant
April 7, 2002
STARKVILLE Mississippi State didn't break its single-game baseball attendance record Saturday, but the Bulldogs are doing their part to break Georgia's heart.
A crowd of 11,860, sixth largest in Dudy Noble Field history, saw State go up 2-0 in the series with a 14-4 rout. The win upped State's Saturday SEC record to 2-3. MSU is 6-4 in the league and 17-10-1 overall. East Division leader Georgia fell to 7-4 and 16-10.
State shelled four Georgia pitchers like a bag of ballpark peanuts for a dozen hits in addition to receiving nine walks.
Meanwhile, State's Tanner Brock allowed two runs on five hits in eight innings to up his record to 4-2.
Georgia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Chaz Lytle hit Brock's first offering up the middle for a single. Darryl Blaze followed with an infield hit with both batters advancing on a double steal. Lytle scored on a sacrifice fly by Lee Mitchell.
State took a 2-1 lead when Michael Brown launched a towering two-run homer into the wind and over the 373-foot sign in left-center in the third. Brown's homer also scored Robby Goodson, who had walked on four pitches.
The inning continued with a walk to Matthew Maniscalco and a single by Casey Long. After a wild pitch, Maniscalco crossed the plate on Matthew Brinson's ground out. Long scored on a ground ball by Jason Burkley that Mitchell fielded at third base, but hit Long in the helmet with his throw to the plate. Burkley advanced to second as the ball caromed to the backstop. An RBI-single by Jon Mungle put MSU up 5-1.
Maniscalco reached base in all five of his plate appearances, hitting two singles, walking twice, and being hit by a pitch.
Georgia threatened in the fifth as Blaze doubled down the left-field line with one-out and took third on a wild pitch. He attempted to score on David Coffey's fly ball to mid-right field on the foul line, but right fielder Steve Gendron extinguished Blaze at the plate as Burkley applied the tag.
Georgia got a run back in the sixth as Adam Swann walked and John Armitage followed with a single. Swann scored on a wild pitch.
It would be a temporary respite as State racked up six runs in the bottom of the sixth, all of which scored with two outs. Gendron led off the inning with a double in the right-field corner. Two walks and a double to shallow left field by Long loaded the bases and chased Georgia starter Bill Sharpton (3-2). Burkley promptly greeted reliever Max Havel with a two-run single up the middle for an 8-2 lead. Brent Lewis' single plated Brinson and a two-run triple by Mungle to the fence in right-center upped the lead to 11-2.
Knowing Georgia's pitchers after coaching there the last two years was a plus, Polk said.
Brock had it made with the nine-run lead.
State added three more runs off just one hit in the seventh. Bo Lanier faced four batters, giving up a single to Brown, walking two and hitting another. A throwing error to the plate on Brinson's grounder to first base made it 13-2 with Maniscalco scoring on Enrico Jones' sacrifice fly.
Blaze had a two-run single in the ninth to end the scoring.
The series concludes with a 1:30 p.m. contest today. Joey Collums (2-1, 2.56) is expected to start for MSU. Georgia coach David Perno wasn't sure who he would start.
