Mississippi State was five outs shy of being no-hit. Four batters later and the Bulldogs had erupted for five runs – two coming on Kellum Clark’s homer that broke up Griff McGarry’s no-hit bid and three more coming on a Tanner Allen homer – to erase a 4-0 deficit. MSU added one more run in the inning and held on a for a thrilling 6-5 comeback to stun Virginia in a winners’ bracket game at the College World Series Tuesday night.
McGarry was masterful, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his second straight start and extended into the eighth. With one out, Clark ripped an inside fastball over the wall in right for the Bulldogs’ first hit and cut the Cavaliers’ lead in half. Zach Messinger relieved McGarry and allowed two hits before Stephen Schoch was summoned to face Allen, who hammered a 1-0 slider for a three-run homer and a 5-4 lead. Scott Dubrule contributed an RBI single to complete the six-run outburst.
“We talked to the team about it’s hard to get the last outs in Omaha, and just to keep fighting, keep fighting, get something going, and we were able to do that,” MSU coach Chris Lemonis said. “We’ve been fortunate all year, our best hitter comes to the plate and he gets the big hit again. A fun night for us.”
That hitter was Allen, the SEC Player of the Year.
“I knew I had a base open,” said Allen, who added that he had played with Schoch in a summer league before arriving at State. “I knew they weren’t going to throw me a fastball. So I kind of had an idea. I was just trying to get a slider up in the zone so I could do some damage with it.”
Virginia (36-26) crept to 6-5 when Chris Newell (3 for 4, 2 R, 2 RBI) hit an opposite-field homer that carried out to left in the bottom of the eighth. But Landon Sims closed out the Cavaliers for his second save in Omaha as the Bulldogs (47-16) now await the winner of Virginia and Texas, who meet Thursday in an elimination game for the right to face an MSU team that is one win away from the title series.
“We didn’t do enough, we didn’t finish the game certainly on the mound,” Cavaliers coach Brian O’Connor said. “And we had opportunities to extend our lead numerous times in the middle of the game, and we just didn’t do it. And that’s a credit to Mississippi State. And it was important, I told our guys that they didn’t think about this game as we lost the game. They won it. And it’s important that they think of it that way.”
The Cavaliers scored one in the first as Kyle Teel plated Zack Gelof with an RBI single, then added three more an RBI double from Newell and RBI singles from Gelof and Max Cotier for a 4-0 lead. From there, seven Bulldogs relievers combined to allow one run over the final 7.2 innings and escaped a couple of key jams.
“It was a great game,” McGarry said. “And obviously tough ending for us. But we’re not out of the fight. We’ve been in this situation before in the Regionals, Super Regionals. Feeling really confident, and I know our guys will get it done.”