Rooker, Pilkington Shine as Mississippi State Advances in 2017 SEC Baseball Tournament

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The first round of the 2017 SEC Baseball Tournament finally concluded on Wednesday morning as Mississippi State beat Georgia 3-0.

 

The stars for Mississippi State came out to shine in game four of the SEC Baseball Tournament.

SEC Player of the Year Brent Rooker got the scoring going early with a 2-run home run in the bottom of the first. He finished the game 3-5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. He also reached on an error.

The three hits raised his SEC-leading batting average to .419, and he increased his home run total to 21, which also leads the SEC.

Konnor Pilkington, the Mississippi State ace, wouldn’t require any more run support as he tossed 8-plus scoreless innings and struck out 6 batters. He did allow 5 hits and walked two batters in what was an otherwise flawless performance for the sophomore.

After loading the bases in the third inning, Hunter Vansau picked up an RBI on a sac fly that drove home Rooker, giving Mississippi State a 3-0 lead.

Georgia freshman shortstop Cam Shepherd was 2-4 with a walk. He’ll end his freshman campaign with a solid .307 batting average.

It wasn’t a perfect game for Mississippi State offensively as they left 12 runners on base. They’ll need to hit much better with runners in scoring position the rest of the SEC Tournament and into the postseason if they’re going to win.

They’ll face the four seed in Arkansas at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning. That’s if there are no more setbacks with rain looming in the forecast for Hoover, Ala.

 

Outlook for Georgia: Georgia obviously had to win the whole SEC Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament, so their season is finished. I will say, Georgia was a much different team at the end of the season than they were at the beginning. With four freshman and three sophomores in their lineup today, this could be a very good team next year.

 

NCAA Tournament Picture: Mississippi State is easily in the NCAA Tournament, but another win in the SEC Tournament could help them earn a regional host. After a bad finish to the season, they’d love to win a few more games in Hoover to feel good for the NCAA Tournament.