Mississippi State baseball offense slumbers in SEC tournament loss vs Vanderbilt

HOOVER, Ala. — Mississippi State baseball entered win-or-go-home mode at the SEC tournament as Thursday night turned to Friday morning at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

MSU, as the field's No. 5 seed, lost 4-3 against No. 8 seed Vanderbilt to drop into the loser's bracket. A meeting with No. 1 seed Tennessee (47-11) awaits on Friday (6:30 p.m, SEC Network). The Vols opened play in Hoover with a loss against the Commodores on Wednesday before defeating No. 4 seed Texas A&M on Thursday.

The loser between MSU (38-20) and UT will be eliminated. The winner will advance to Saturday's semifinals where Vanderbilt (38-20) awaits a rematch.

Jurrangelo Cijntje gives Bulldogs quality start

Mississippi State sophomore Jurrangelo Cijntje made his postseason debut against the Commodores and did enough to give the Bulldogs a chance to win.

The ambidextrous pitcher picked up a quality start with three runs allowed across six innings. He struck out the first six hitters he faced, though that streak quickly came to an end in the third. Behind three singles and a hit batter, the Commodores plated two runs in the frame.

A wild pitch scoring Calvin Hewett in the fifth was the lone other blemish on Cijnte’s line.

Still, Cijntje limited a Vanderbilt offense that scored 19 runs in its first two games of the conference tournament. He exited with a 3-1 deficit, though, and was the losing pitcher of record.

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Hunters Hines, Dakota Jordan continue to struggle for Mississippi State

Entering Thursday, Mississippi State sluggers Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines had 143 combined strikeouts on the campaign. The other seven starters in coach Chris Lemonis’ lineup had 108 combined strikeouts.

The 32 combined home runs were enough to outweigh the whiffs for Hines and Jordan for the majority of the season. That hasn’t been the case of late, and the woes continued against Vanderbilt.

Hines, who entered Thursday with one hit since May 11, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Jordan, who entered hitless in his last 14 at-bats, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts – including a whiff in the seventh to end a bases-loaded threat.

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: SEC tournament: Mississippi State baseball loses against Vanderbilt