Seven-run first helps Mississippi State escape midweek woes at UAB

So thorough was Rickey Henderson’s domination for the Oakland Athletics in the 1989 American League Championship Series that Todd Stottlemyre, a pitcher for the opposing Toronto Blue Jays, quipped, “I don’t know if it’s harder to get God out or Rickey Henderson out.”

Mississippi State has had its own version of the great Henderson lately on the softball diamond. Sierra Sacco’s evolution into a complete offensive player has made her one of the best leadoff hitters in the country, and she both started and completed a seven-run, first-inning rally Wednesday evening at UAB.

Sacco led off the game with a triple, then drove in the last two runs of the inning with a double as the Bulldogs batted around. She finished the night 3-for-5 in No. 18 MSU’s 8-4 victory, improving her triple slash for the season to .500/.617/.875 through 30 games.

“Sierra just finds ways to get on base,” Bulldogs head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “It can be big hits or small hits. She’s just constantly the consummate hitter, going up there and doing her job. It was another great game out of her, setting the tone and being on base to give us a chance to score.”

Kylee Edwards’ two-run double opened the scoring for MSU (25-5) in the first, and a Morgan Bernardini infield single brought in another run. After an error scored two more, Sacco split the left-center gap to make it a seven-spot.

Sophomore left-hander Delainey Everett gave a couple of those runs back in the bottom of the first as the Blazers (11-17) got on the board on a two-run home run by Lindsey Smith that followed a throwing error. But Everett settled down after that, completing four innings with five hits, no walks and just the two unearned runs.

Josey Marron took over in the circle to start the fifth but ran into more trouble. With one out, Marron allowed four straight batters to reach base on two hits, a walk and a hit batter. A two-run double by Hannah Miles off Nadia Barbary’s glove at third base chased Marron from the game, with ace Raelin Chaffin entering to put out the fire.

Chaffin escaped the jam with a strikeout and a pop-up, keeping the Bulldogs’ lead at three. She received some help from her battery mate in the sixth and seventh, with Ella Wesolowski throwing out a would-be base stealer at second and later backpicking another runner at first. Wesolowski pinch-hit for Lexi Sosa in the second inning, then replaced Jessie Blaine behind the plate in the bottom of that inning as Blaine moved to the designated player spot.

“I was just super locked in,” Wesolowski said. “I want to be aggressive, and if I’m going to get a chance to go in and catch, throwing is my thing. I wanted to make sure I was aggressive, trying to pick off runners and also know the situation on the dropped third strike to throw her out at second.”

MSU was quiet offensively after the big first inning but did pick up an insurance run in the seventh on Barbary’s RBI single through the right side.

The Bulldogs have their week off from Southeastern Conference play this weekend, instead heading to Evanston, Illinois for a three-game series at Northwestern. The Wildcats have won three straight Big Ten titles, and although they started slow this season, they are entering this series winners of their last seven games and typically play very well at home.

“Scoring first, giving Delainey a cushion to go out there with, is always good,” Ricketts said. “We left too many runners on base in the middle innings, but I love that we set the tone there in the first. Raelin coming in to close us out there in the last few innings, it was all around a great team effort to get us through that game.”

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