Baseball: Air Force falls to Mississippi State, 16-8

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (AFPN) --  The U.S. Air Force Academy took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Mississippi State battled back for a 16-8 win in college baseball action March 2 here.

A Dudy Noble Field crowd of 2,479 watched the rubber game of a three-game weekend series where the teams split a doubleheader March 1 as MSU won the first game 3-1, before the Air Force answered with a 6-4 victory in the second game. 

The Falcons record now stands at 2-5.

Nathan Carter led off the game for Air Force with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by K.J. Randhawa. After Chay Derbigny walked, Addison Gentry's double drove in Carter for the first run of the game. Matt Alexander's sacrifice fly scored Derbigny for a 2-0 lead. Mississippi State tied it up in the bottom of the first.

In the top of the third, Derbigny singled and the scored on Matt Alexander's single for a 3-2 Air Force lead. From then on it was all Bulldogs. Starting pitcher Jake Petro (0-2) was chased in the MSU third inning and took the loss for the Falcons.

For the contest, Connor Powers led the offensive attack for the Falcons with three hits and a pair of RBIs. Duffy added two hits and three RBIs. Collins, Sneed and Nappi each had two hits and two RBIs. Butler and Grant Hogue also had multiple hits.

The Air Force finished with 12 hits. Alexander had three hits and five RBIs for the Falcons. Derbigny also had three hits. Addison Gentry and Nathan Carter each added multiple hits. Gentry also drove in three runs for the Falcons.

The Falcons next travel to compete in the Papa John's Challenge, March 6 through 9 at Palm Beach, Fla. The Falcons will face Maine March 6, Lehigh March 7, UConn March 8 and Penn March 9. The Falcons' next home series is March 14 through 16 vs. South Dakota State.

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