The long ball was not enough to push the Missouri Tigers to a win against the No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs.

A three homer game gave the Tigers all of their runs and pushed them to a close game, but they couldn’t complete the comeback. Missouri dropped their third SEC game in a row, this one a 4-3 loss to Mississippi State. This loss officially eliminates the Tigers from a trip to Hoover for the SEC Tournament.

A solo home run in the second inning and a triple followed by a groundout in the third put Missouri down by two. Missouri would already have to fight from behind if they wanted a chance in the game.

The Tigers comeback was already mounting in the fourth inning when they brought themselves within one run. A solo shot from junior first baseman Danny Corona kicked off the scoring for Missouri.

Mississippi State wasn’t going to make it easy on the Tigers, however. They got one run back in the fifth inning with a solo shot of their own to bring the difference back to two runs.

But Missouri didn’t seem content with that. They kicked off the sixth inning with back-to-back solo home runs from senior third baseman Trevor Austin and sophomore centerfielder Jackson Lovich. Despite being down initially, the Tigers had came back to tie the game and give themselves a chance.

But it didn’t last for long. Mississippi State retook the lead in the bottom half of the sixth after a walk, stolen base and a double pushed a runner across. This ended up being the deciding run for the game, as Missouri’s offense failed to bring another run across.

Missouri decided to send out junior right-hander Kaden Jacobi for his first start of his career in this game. He would do it against the No. 16 team in the country. Considering his opponents, he had quite a good start. He tossed three innings, giving up two runs on three hits. His main struggle came with the extra-base hits, such as the home run in the second inning and the triple in the third.

Jacobi was relieved by senior left-hander Ian Lohse in the fourth. He needed to keep the Tigers in the game and keep the Bulldogs from scoring, but gave up the go-ahead run in the sixth. Lohse threw three innings himself, with two runs on two hits. Junior Victor Quinn entered in the seventh.

Missouri attempted to put graduate Jacob Peaden into the game to pitch in the seventh inning, but he was removed by the umpires after one pitch. It was said that Peaden could not pitch since he was not on the 27-man roster for the weekend. Another oddity for the Tigers squad was Lovich donning number 29 on his jersey, which belongs to junior Cameron Benson, instead of his usual 18.

Missouri’s record drops to 22-31 on the season and 8-20 in SEC play, while Mississippi State improves to 35-18 and 16-12. The Tigers will take the field for game two at 6 p.m. CT on Friday.