State gets to Leiter, evens series

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Mississippi State's Rowdey Jordan and Logan Tanner homered off Vanderbilt starter Jack Leiter, helping the Bulldogs to a 7-4 win at Hawkins Field on Friday night.

Jordan hit the game's second pitch out to right, while Tanner added a fifth-inning homer that gave MSU a 4-1 lead.

MSU starter Will Bednar stymied Vandy for five-plus innings, allowing one run, three hits and three walks while striking out eight.

The Commodores (30-7, 12-5 Southeastern Conference) remain a game ahead of Tennessee in the SEC's Eastern Division standings, but fell a half game behind Arkansas for the overall lead.

It wasn't Vandy's night from the beginning. Leiter struggled through a 28-pitch first inning, allowing the first four Bulldog runners to reach. A Luke Hancock single put MSU up 2-0 after a half inning.

Vanderbilt's Enrique Bradfield Jr. led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, stole second and third and came home on Jack Bulger's sacrifice fly.

That remained the score until the fifth, when Tanner Allen walked to lead off the fifth on a 3-2 breaking ball near the top of the zone. That proved to be critical, as Tanner hammered a hanging breaking ball with two outs for a two-run homer to left and a 4-1 lead.

MSU added three more off lefty Hunter Owen in the seventh on a Tanner double, a Brayland Skinner single and a Scotty Dubrule grounder to second.

Those proved to be key runs.

Vanderbilt started a rally against Preston Jonson in the seventh, with C.J. Rodriguez reaching after being hit by pitch and Isaiah Thomas drawing a one-out walk. MSU brought in relief ace Landon Sims, who'd allowed just one run and 18 base runners while striking out 47 in 24 1/3 innings coming in.

But Cooper Davis, the first man Sims saw, turned around a 93-mile-and-hour fastball for an RBI single, and Jayson Gonzalez followed with a two-RBI single on a 97-mile-an-hour heater one batter later.

Following a walk to Bradfield and a wild pitch, Vandy had runners on second and third, but Carter Young and Dominic Keegan struck out to end the inning.

Sims, who ended the night with 38 pitches, then retired the side in order to end the eighth and ninth.

The teams play the deciding game on Sunday at 1 Central. Vanderbilt has not announced a starting pitcher, while the Bulldogs will throw freshman Jackson Fristoe.