What we learned from Mississippi State baseball’s series loss to Florida (2025)

STARKVILLE — Nate Williams delivered a sharp breaking ball with late, downward movement, completely fooling Florida second baseman Justin Nadeau for a strikeout to start the seventh inning Saturday night.

Unfortunately for Williams, the movement was also too much for his catcher, Ross Highfill, as the ball trickled away from him toward the Mississippi State dugout. Highfill did not immediately locate the ball, and by the time he did, it was too late as Nadeau had scampered to first base.

Williams — who had entered with not only a three-run lead but a season ERA of 2.00 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 13-to-1 — was thrown off his game. The next five batters all reached base against him on three hits and two walks, and they all came around to score. A night after another one of the Bulldogs’ best relievers, Stone Simmons, had a blow-up outing, Williams also failed to record an out as the Gators took the lead and ultimately won 11-8.

“You can’t get somebody warmed up fast enough, is the problem,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “The inning is going so fast, it’s like a house burning. You can’t stop the house from burning fast enough. We have to be better.”

Both Simmons and Williams were called upon again Sunday, when the Bulldogs avoided the sweep with a 14-8 victory. But the circle of trust for Lemonis in the bullpen is small with four weeks left in the regular season to fight for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

MSU loses mistake-filled game Saturday night

It all started in the top of the first, when the Bulldogs lost a fly ball in the lights that ended up as a double for Brendan Lawson, who came around to score the game’s first run. In the bottom of the second, MSU loaded the bases with nobody out but failed to score after Gatlin Sanders struck out and Gehrig Frei and Sawyer Reeves both popped out.

The Bulldogs (24-16, 6-12 Southeastern Conference) appeared to take control with four runs in the fifth. Ace Reese delivered a clutch two-run single, and Noah Sullivan, who had homered in the first, picked up his second of three hits on the night. Evan Siary and Ben Davis were both solid on the mound, turning a 6-3 lead over to Williams in the seventh.

MSU had issues with its battery throughout the game, with four wild pitches and two passed balls. Luke Dotson, who relieved Williams, wild-pitched home Florida’s final run of the seventh.

“If you want to beat them, you have to outplay them. We’re just not outplaying them,” Lemonis said. “(The bullpen) hasn’t given us much at all. You just let somebody come in here, and we don’t make plays and we don’t do things. There’s some sloppiness in there.”

Reed Stallman’s second home run of the series cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to one in the bottom of the seventh. But Nolan Stevens, making his first start of the season in center field, dropped a routine fly ball to start the ninth. On the next play, Ryan McPherson slipped and fell after fielding a bunt, preventing him from getting an out. The hitters responsible for both of those batted balls wound up scoring.

Defense was a strength for MSU in 2024, helping make the overall run prevention unit into one of the best in the SEC. That has not been the case this season — through Saturday, the Bulldogs had the worst fielding percentage of any team in SEC play.

“We just haven’t played good enough. As simple as it is, we haven’t gotten enough hits, we haven’t pitched well enough on the mound,” Sullivan said. “It’s all our fault. It’s not anybody else’s but ours.”

Offense answers the call in Sunday win

Every starter hit safely for MSU in the series finale. After Karson Ligon plunked the first batter of the game and allowed a homer to the second, Ace Reese kicked off a big day with a game-tying two-run shot in the bottom of the first. The Bulldogs blew another bases-loaded opportunity in the second, but they took the lead for good in the third.

After Reese and Sullivan singled to start the inning, Reed Stallman put the hosts in front with a sacrifice fly. Bryce Chance’s RBI single added another run, and then catcher Joe Powell capped the inning with a long three-run blast into the lounge in left-center.

“We’re a really good offense,” Powell said. “We’re talking about how we can continue to be better, how we can put our pitching in a better situation with us putting runs on the board. When we keep putting runs on the board, it makes their jobs way easier. They go out there more confident (when they) pitch with a lead.”

The Gators (27-15, 6-12) kept the pressure on, but MSU responded with another five-run inning in the eighth. Gehrig Frei led off with his second home run of the day, and the Bulldogs rallied with two outs as Chance hit a two-run single up the middle and Sanders followed with a two-run double.

Ligon knew MSU needed length from him on the mound, and he lasted five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. Davis, pitching for the second day in a row, put up zeros in the sixth and seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth, allowing a two-run homer before giving way to Williams.

The first batter Williams faced, Nadeau, also went deep, but he struck out two of the next three to preserve the lead. Simmons was not at his sharpest but worked a scoreless ninth, capped by a diving catch from Sanders on a pop-up in shallow right.

The schedule does not get any easier this week as the Bulldogs face rival Ole Miss on Tuesday night in the annual Governor’s Cup game in Pearl. MSU then hits the road for a three-game series at Auburn starting Friday.

“This is what we had left,” Lemonis said. “(Williams and Simmons) were fresh enough to be able to go out there, and they had to gut through it a little bit. They both gave us a great effort. Our guys haven’t had to do that much this season, so it was good they were able to gut it out.”

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