STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mizzou Baseball dropped its series opener at No. 3 Mississippi State, 8-2, on Thursday night (May 5) at Dudy Noble Field. MSU starter Dakota Hudson tossed 8.1 innings, allowing just one earned run on seven hits with a career-high 11 strikeouts and earned his seventh win of the season. Mizzou starter Reggie McClain (Duluth, Ga.) took the loss after pitching 6.2, allowing seven earned runs on 15 hits with six strikeouts and just one walk as he falls to 4-3 on the season.

Offensively, Mizzou was led by multi-hit performances from senior 1B Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.) and junior SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.), the 18^th and 16^th such games of the year for each, respectively. Over his last six games, Howard has five of his 16 multi-hit games and is hitting 13-for-25 (.520) with nine runs and seven RBI. Lavy tallied three hits in the game, his eighth three-hit game of the year. He also scored both of Mizzou's runs.

McClain got himself into some trouble in the first inning. He opened the game by getting MSU leadoff hitter Jake Mangum down 0-2, but he singled into center on a 0-2 fastball. Jack Kruger then walked on four pitches and Nathaniel Lowe singled despite being down 1-2 to lead the bases with no outs. But he got a huge 5-2-3 double play and a strikeout to escape the jam unscathed.

 Taking the momentum of escaping the jam, Mizzou got on the board in the top of the second, sparked by a leadoff single by Lavy. He took third on a heads-up play on a single by Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) and then scored on an RBI groundout by Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.). That gave Mizzou the early lead.

AS quickly as Mizzou gained the lead, MSU tied the game. Brent Rooker launched a solo shot on the first pitch of the bottom of the second inning to tie the game at 1-1. McClain almost got out of the inning, but a two-out single by Mangum plated the go-ahead run and put MSU on top, 2-1.

Mizzou attempted a two-out rally following two-out singles from Jake Ring (Inglesdie, Ill.) and Howard in the third inning. But Lavy struck out swinging to strand the two men, including the tying run at third base.

Each pitcher seemed to settle in after the second inning until MSU rallied in the fifth with back-to-back extra-base hits, punctuated by a two-run homer by Lowe to put MSU on top, 4-1. MSU tacked on one more run in the fifth to put up a three-spot and then added another on three straight base hits in the sixth to take a 6-1 lead into the seventh. MSU then scored one run in the seventh and another in the eighth off of Mizzou's bullpen to put the game away despite Mizzou scoring one more in the ninth.

Mizzou and Mississippi State will resume their series tomorrow at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. For all the latest on all things Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Mizzou Baseball).

Postgame Notes

• Mizzou now trails the all-time series with Mississippi State, 6-0
• Mizzou falls to 0-2 on Thursdays.
• Senior 1B Zach Lavy singled in the second inning and has now reached base in 19 straight games, the longest streak by a Tiger this season. Lavy also singled in the sixth inning, good for his 18^th multi-hit game of the year.
• Lavy tallied his eighth three-hit game of the season on Thursday.
• DH Brian Sharp earned his first start since April 17 against LSU and drove in his first run since March 29 against SLU, a span of 19 games.
• Junior SS Ryan Howard singled in the third inning and has now reached Base in 10 straight games and owns a six-game hitting streak. He tallied his 16^th multi-hit game of the season on Thursday. Of his 16 multi-hit games, five have come in the last six contests. In that span, he is hitting 13-for-25 (.520) with nine runs and seven RBI.
• Junior CF Jake Ring singled in the third inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-long nine games. It is the second-longest streak by a Mizzou player this season.