Box ScoreSTARKVILLE, Miss. – Trailing 12-6, the Eastern Kentucky baseball team scored 10 unanswered runs to beat No. 13 Mississippi State, 16-12 in 10 innings, on Tuesday at Polk-DeMent Stadium.
The Colonels trailed 4-0, 7-1, 9-4 and 12-6 before coming all the way back to win.
"I'm very proud of this group,"
Edwin Thompson said. "To go on the road and beat the 13th ranked team in the nation and have everyone contribute is amazing. To be down six runs late and then score 10 runs to put the game away shows the character of this team and who we can be. We will enjoy it tonight and get back to work tomorrow."
It was EKU's first victory over a ranked team since beating No. 16 Louisville on March 3, 2009 and the first win over a Southeastern Conference team since beating Tennessee, 8-7, on March 3, 2010. The 2016 Colonels also got a little payback for the 1984 team. That EKU squad came to Starkville for the NCAA Regional and had MSU on the ropes before falling 13-8.
The comeback started in the eighth inning.
Cole Warrenfeltz and
Matt Olive had back-to-back singles and
Dakota Graham drew a walk to start the inning. Two batters later
Doug Teegarden drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but the Colonels had two outs in the inning.
Kyle Nowlin kept the inning alive when he drove the second pitch he saw over the wall in center field to score three runs and draw Eastern to within two, 12-10.
Mandy Alvarez and
Ben Fisher each followed with singles before
Shea Sullivan tied the score with a 2-run double to left center.
Mississippi State tried to answer in the bottom of the eighth when the first two batters reached base off
Caleb Johnson. However, after an attempted sacrifice bunt was caught by Alvarez, Johnson struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
Teegarden led off the top of the 10th with a single through the right side. Nowlin followed with a single through the left side. A fly ball by Alvarez moved the go-ahead run to third. Sullivan followed with a single to center to score Teegarden. Warrenfeltz added an RBI single and Sullivan scored on a wild pitch.
Kenny Hostrander capped the four-run inning with a run scoring infield single.
Johnson was back out for the bottom of the 10th. He hit the first batter with a pitch before retiring the next three. He pitched the final three innings and allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out four.
Sullivan was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Alvarez went 3-for-6 with three runs and two RBIs. Nowlin finished 2-for-5 with a run and three RBIs. Teegarden, Fisher and Olive each had two hits.
Eastern Kentucky had 17 hits, compared to 15 for MSU.
After the Bulldogs went in front 7-1 in the fifth, the Colonels made a run to get back in it. Warrenfeltz drew a bases loaded walk. A ground out by Olive was enough to score a second run. Warrenfeltz then came home on a passed ball to draw the visitors within three, 7-4.
Mississippi State answered in the bottom half of the inning when Nathaniel Lowe doubled down the right field line to drive in a pair of runners and stretch the margin back to five. Alvarez got the deficit back to three, 9-6, in the top of the seventh with a two run home run over the wall in left field, but MSU came right back and scored three to go on top by six, 12-6.
EKU's week-long road trip continues on Wednesday at Alabama A&M. First pitch in Huntsville is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.
