Hoover, Alabama, May 20, 2026, 12:03 CDT
- Mississippi State rolled past Missouri 12-2, ending the run-rule contest early thanks to the lopsided score.
- The Bulldogs move on and will take on top-seeded Georgia this Thursday.
- Missouri’s win over Ole Miss turned out to be short-lived; by the sixth, Mississippi State erupted, blowing the game wide open.
Mississippi State hammered Missouri 12-2 on Wednesday, ending the Tigers’ stay at the SEC Tournament in lopsided fashion. An eight-run outburst in the sixth blew the game open, putting the Bulldogs into the quarterfinals. Next up for the No. 8 seed: top-seeded Georgia on Thursday afternoon.
This one counts—SEC Tournament rules out any second chances, so a loss sends a team packing and potentially hurts its NCAA Tournament ambitions. Georgia and the other top three seeds came in fresh from quarterfinal byes. Mississippi State, on the other hand, had no such luxury, getting through the second round just to reach this point.
That wrapped up Missouri’s brightest postseason run in recent memory. Entering as the 16th seed after slogging through a 6-24 SEC slate, the Tigers stunned No. 9 Ole Miss 10-8 on Tuesday—marking their first SEC Tournament victory since 2017.
Missouri jumped ahead early with a solo shot in the first, but Mississippi State wasted little time responding—Ryder Woodson belted a three-run homer in the second. The Tigers trimmed the deficit to 3-2 by the fifth, only for Gehrig Frei to tack on another run, pushing it to 4-2.
The tide shifted in the sixth. Vytas Valincius blasted a solo shot, sparking Mississippi State as they kept putting runners on against a Missouri bullpen already stretched from the previous day. After that, Frei took one for the team with the bases loaded, Ace Reese drew a bases-loaded walk, and soon enough, the lead ballooned to 12-2.
Tomas Valincius set Mississippi State up early, tossing six innings with eight strikeouts, five hits, and just two runs allowed. The lefty’s outing meant coach Brian O’Connor could hold back his bullpen arms for Georgia.
Mississippi State put its ace, Valincius, on the mound: 9-2, a 3.04 ERA, 112 Ks and 17 walks in 80 innings. Missouri’s move—lefty Brady Kehlenbrink, sporting a 3-9 record and a 6.69 ERA—came after coach Kerrick Jackson tapped him as the Tigers’ Game 2 starter following Tuesday’s upset.
Missouri chased Ole Miss all day on Tuesday, eventually pushing through. Mateo Serna delivered a 3-for-5 line, knocked in two runs, and came out ahead on seven of eight pitch challenges using the SEC Tournament’s automated ball-strike review. Eli Skidmore fanned five over the closing three innings.
“Once we saw how the ball was flying we knew we had a chance,” Missouri’s Jase Woita said after that Ole Miss game. But facing Mississippi State, the Tigers didn’t get as many opportunities. Mississippi State’s lineup came into Hoover batting .314, with 102 home runs—just one shy of the program’s single-season record. Rock M Nation
Mississippi State faces a new challenge now: Georgia, the tournament’s top seed, fresh off a bye. In this single-elimination format, a rough inning is all it takes to wipe out any edge gained from Wednesday’s quick win.
Mississippi State handled business in Hoover, erasing Missouri’s shot at another early upset. The Bulldogs kept their bullpen fresh and now stand just a victory away from reaching the weekend rounds.
