By By Marty Stamper/EMG sports assistant
May 31, 2003
STARKVILLE You give Mississippi State pitcher Paul Maholm double-digit runs and you can put a win on the board for the Bulldogs.
In his 24th career appearance at Dudy Noble Field, Maholm (9-2) put MSU in the winners' bracket of the NCAA Regional at Starkville with a 10-4 victory over Middle Tennessee.
State, 41-18-1, takes on North Carolina, 40-21, at 3 p.m. today. The loser of that game will play again at 7 tonight.
Maholm, who was selected third team All-American by Collegiate Baseball earlier in the day, improved to 15-6 at Dudy Noble. In 6.2 innings, he allowed four runs on seven hits. Three of the runs and three of the hits came in the top of the seventh.
Maholm struck out six. His third inning whiff of Chris LeGuenec moved him into third place on the MSU career strikeout list with 272.
The five runs off Kline were the most he has allowed since an April 4 game with Florida International, covering a span of nine starts.
State wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, putting up four runs on six hits in the bottom of the first. Matthew Maniscalco led off with a single and scored on Steve Gendron's double to left-center. Matthew Brinson made it 2-0 when his double to left field one-hopped over the fence to plate Gendron.
After a single by Brad Corley, Brinson scored on Craig Tatum's fielder's choice. Thomas Berkery's two-out single to left made it 4-0.
The Bulldogs took advantage of shoddy defense by the Blue Raiders to add an unearned run in the second. Gendron reached on a two-out error. Following a walk to Brinson, MTSU catcher Troy Harp sailed his throw to Kline into shallow center field with Gendron motoring home all the way from first for a 5-0 lead.
The Blue Raiders picked up an unearned run in the top of the fifth when Berkery's throw on Chad Cooper's two-out grounder sailed into the MTSU dugout, allowing Harp to scored from second.
In the bottom of the fifth State began to solve reliever Jerry Knox, who had tossed two shutout frames. Corley and Tatum led off with singles. Goodson's hard single to center field bounced off Chuck Akers, allowing Corley to score. Joseph Hunter's sacrifice fly made it 7-1 and Jon Mungle's infield hit scored Goodson.
The onslaught continued when Gendron's double to left-center plated two more runs for a 10-1 lead and chased Knox.
The Blue Raiders got three runs in the top of the seventh with Cooper singling in one run and Josh Archer's double scoring another.
Saunders Ramsey tossed the final 2.1 innings, retiring all seven batters he faced for MSU.
MTSU faces Missouri in an elimination game at 11 a.m. today.