The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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#7 Mississippi State
No. 9 Baseball drops opener to Mississippi State
02.20.2021 | Baseball
ARLINGTON, Texas – No. 9 Texas Baseball dropped its season opener, 8-3, to No. 7 Mississippi State in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown on Saturday at Globe Life Field. The Longhorns will be back in action against No. 8 Arkansas on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Globe Life Field.
Ivan Melendez hit his first career home run for the Longhorns, going deep in the bottom of the fifth to get Texas on the board. Melendez also lined an RBI double in the ninth and finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Silas Ardoin also finished with 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Mississippi State grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning, lining three-straight two-out singles up the middle off of starter Ty Madden. A two-out walk by Madden got the Bulldog's rally started.
The Bulldogs added two runs to the lead in the fourth after a solo homer, followed by two walks and an errant throw.
Pete Hansen came out of the bullpen in the fifth but Mississippi State managed to tack on another run to go up 5-0.
The Longhorns got on the board on the Melendez homer to lead off the fifth. Texas then loaded the bases with nobody out in the inning but couldn't scratch out a run.
Mississippi State tacked on one more run in the sixth and another in the eighth to make it 8-1.
In addition to Hansen, Cole Quintanilla, Caden Noah, Jared Southard and Palmer Wenzel all pitched in relief. Wenzel pitched a perfect top of the ninth in his Texas debut.
The Longhorns tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the ninth on hits from Zach Zubia, Melendez and Ardoin.
