Going Bananas! Bulldogs Hammer Carolina, 12-2

The player who started the banana superstition at Mississippi State turned out to be Top Banana at the College World Series on Tuesday..

Jordan Westburg launched a grand slam home run with two out in the second inning and added a bases clearing double in the eighth, propelling the Bulldogs to a 12-2 win over North Carolina in a winners’ bracket game at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, NE.

Westburg hit a hanging slider from North Carolina’s Austin Bergner and deposited it over the left field bullpen into the bleachers to give the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead in the second inning.  All four runs were unearned as a result of an error earlier in the inning.  Bergner retired the Bulldogs without a base runner until the eighth inning, but the damage had been done.

Konnor Pilkington was outstanding for Mississippi State, allowing just one run through six innings.  A fly ball lost in the sun went for a triple for North Carolina leading off the seventh and that run scored on a wild pitch, finishing Pilkington’s day.

Mississippi State then loaded the bases with no outs against Bergner in the eighth inning.  Reliever Josh Hiatt allowed a flare hit to left, a ground ball through the drawn in infield and a bad hop single, plating all three inherited runners.  The Bulldogs wound up scoring eight runs in the inning, capped by Westburg’s double, giving him seven RBI on the day, tying a single game CWS record.

Mississippi State will now be off until Friday, when they will face the winner of an elimination game between North Carolina and Oregon State.