An Upset of No. 16 Mississippi State Concludes Missouri Baseball's 2024 Season

The Missouri Tigers future was already set coming into the game — they would not be going to the SEC Tournament and Saturday would be their last game of their season. There was nothing they could do about that, but they could try to at least end their season on a good note with a strong game against a highly-ranked opponent. They were risking ending the season on a five-game losing streak.

But that would not be so. They were able to upset the No. 16 team in the country to end their season with a 4-3 win. Missouri may not be going to Hoover, but they were able to close the book on the 2024 season with a somewhat happy ending.

It was not looking good to start the game. In the first inning, Missouri had already allowed a runner to get to third and put up an error on a throw to second. They then stranded two runners in the second inning.

Things really started going wrong in the second inning. It began when Missouri's starter, graduate Ryan Magdic walked two to load the bases with no outs. The Tigers finally got one out, but it wasn't without a run scoring first on a fielder's choice. Magdic then stunned a batter to get the second out of the inning. Before he could get out of the inning with another strikeout, Magdic allowed another run to score on a double to left.

Magdic came back out and loaded the bases again in the third inning. At least this time, the bases weren't full until there were two outs in the inning. The Tigers were fortunately able to force Mississippi State to leave the bases loaded.

Many things went wrong for the Bulldogs and right for the Tigers in the fourth inning. It began with a walk of freshman left fielder Kaden Peer and a hit-by-pitch of Graduate second baseman Matt Garcia that forced Mississippi State to go to their bullpen for the first time in the game and the inning.

The Tigers used the pitching change to their advantage. They drove the second Bulldogs' pitcher, freshman Luke Dotson, out of the game with no outs and two runs pushed across. Missouri used two errors from the Mississippi State team, their first two of the series, to get their first run across in freshman catcher Mateo Serna on a fielder's choice. Another hit-by-pitch and a single to left from freshman shortstop Drew Culbertson made it a tie game in the fourth inning.

Missouri wasn't able to break the tie in the top half of the fifth and sophomore Logan Lunceford was set to take on his second batter of the inning when the officials came out and stopped the game due to lightning in the area.

45 minutes later, Lunceford took the mound once more to get the next two outs fairly quickly.

It was the bottom of the sixth inning when Peer leapt into the wall in an attempt to try to grab a ball and keep it a tie game. His efforts weren't enough to keep it in the park and Mississippi State took the lead once more.

The Bulldogs lead was very short-lived. Missouri's top offensive performers tag-teamed with a single from senior third baseman Trevor Austin and a solo home run from sophomore center fielder Jackson Lovich. Lovich's homer was just far enough to go over the wall, bouncing out of the extended glove of Mississippi State's center fielder. The Tigers took their first lead of the game in the top of the seventh.

The Tigers only needed __ pitchers for the game. Magdic didn't have his best outing by any means, but he kept the score low enough. It was Lunceford's relief that lifted the Tigers to the close game. He went 4 1/3 innings and held the highly-ranked team to six hits, one run and one walk. Sophomore Brock Lucas would close the game for the Tigers.

It would come down to Lucas to close out the ninth and maintain Missouri's one-run lead. He was able to do that with three-straight swinging strikeouts to end the game and their season.

Missouri finishes their season with a record of 23-32 on the season and 9-21 in SEC play, while Mississippi State drops to 36-19 and 17-13.