From School reports

HOOVER, Ala. — Mississippi State saw its Hoover Metropolitan Stadium magic fade.

After winning the first three game of this year’s Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament, the 13th-ranked Bulldogs saw the fun come to a screeching halt Saturday afternoon. MSU saw an overall game six-win tournament win streak snapped with a 16-8 loss to No. 1 Vanderbilt in the semifinal round of this year’s event.

Vanderbilt will meet LSU in a national No.1 vs. No. 2 matchup Sunday for the tournament championship.

MSU will now await its postseason destination. The complete 64-team NCAA regional field will be announced at 11 a.m. CT Monday on ESPNU. The Bulldogs appear poised to receive an at-large bid to make a third straight regional appearance.

The 16 tournament host locations will be unveiled at 8 p.m. Sunday. If MSU is selected as a regional host, ticket information will be made available through the university at that time.

“Give Vanderbilt credit,” MSU pitching coach Butch Thompson said. “That team swept us during the regular season. We had another chance to figure them out and couldn’t do anything with it. We had a tough time putting outs together.”

“Offensively, we had a great game. We had several guys with some great at-bats against a really good pitching staff. We will make the adjustments and get ready for regional play.”

MSU knocked off Vanderbilt 3-0 in last season’s tournament championship game. The encore was much different. The Commodores removed all doubt from the contest with seven runs in the second inning. By the time the marathon ended, the two teams had combined for 24 runs, 33 hits, four errors and 21 stranded base runners.

Still, the Maroon and White continued to fight.

Down 8-0, the Bulldogs (43-17) scored once in the third inning and three times in the fourth inning.

Hunter Renfroe had an RBI-single in the third inning. The Bulldogs tried to creep closer when Wes Rea barely missed grand slam, flying out instead to end the inning.

In the fourth inning, Jacob Robson had an RBI-single, Adam Frazier had an RBI-single and Alex Detz added a sacrifice fly.

Vanderbilt reestablished a commanding lead with five runs in the top half of the fifth inning.

Again, the Bulldogs went to work.

In the fifth inning, Brett Pirtle reached as a hit batsman and Rea followed with a double. Demarcus Henderson had a groundball out, while Sam Frost followed with a sacrifice fly. An RBI-double by Renfroe made it 13-7 in the sixth inning but the Bulldogs could get no closer.