STARKVILLE, Mississippi – Despite holding leads of 1-0 and 3-1, the Marist baseball team was unable to hold on for the win, falling to the Mississippi State Bulldogs 12-4 on Saturday.

With the loss, the Red Foxes stand at 3-2 on the year, the best start in program history since 2009.

Redshirt freshman Tyler Kapuscinski led Marist offensively, going 3-for-5 with one run scored and one RBI, while redshirt junior Greg Kocinski finished 1-for-4 with two RBI. Sophomore Anthony Lazar chipped in a 1-for-5 effort with one run scored and one RBI and Frankie Gregoire finished 1-for-3 with two walks.

On the mound, senior John Parisi picked up the loss in his first career start in a Red Fox uniform, throwing six innings while giving up six runs (two earned) on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. Brandon Bonomo pitched, giving up no runs on one hit, Mike Coss pitched one and one third innings, giving up two runs on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts and Ryan Thomas pitched two thirds of an inning and gave up four runs on six hits.

Marist got on the board first in the opening inning when Lazar reached on a throwing error by the third baseman, Kapuscinski singled, both runners advanced to third and second on a passed ball and Kocinski grounded out to the second baseman, scoring Lazar and it was 1-0 Red Foxes.

The Bulldogs answered right back in the bottom of the inning. Luke Alexander was hit by a pitch and Ryan Gridley followed with a bunt single to third base. Brent Rooker singled through the left side to load the bases and Hunter Vansau hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Alexander to even the score at 1-1.

The Red Foxes regained the lead in the top of the second inning when Matt Pagano walked to lead off, and two batters later advanced to second on a wild pitch. Following a strike out, Matt Rubayo was hit by a pitch, Lazar singled through the left side, scoring Pagano and Kapuscinski singled to center, scoring Rubayo and it was 3-1 Marist.

However, for the second consecutive inning, Mississippi State answered back in the bottom of the inning when Josh Lovelady reached on a fielding error by the shortstop, Cody Brown walked and Jake Magnum was hit by a pitch to load the bases. After Parisi got the next batter to strike out, Gridley hit a line drive at the left fielder that was dropped and Brown and Lovelady scored to even the game at 3-3. During the next at bat, Gridley stole second and Rooker followed with a single to right field that scored Gridley and Magnum and it was 5-3 Bulldogs.

In the bottom of the fifth, Mississippi State added to its lead when Gridley led off with a single and Rooker followed with an RBI double to make it 6-3 Bulldogs.

Two innings later in the top of the seventh, the Red Foxes trimmed the deficit to 6-4 when Kapuscinski singled to lead off and two batters later, Kocinski doubled down the left field line, scoring Kapuscinski. However, Marist would strand men on second and third with one out and the score remained 6-4. In the bottom of that inning, the Bulldogs loaded the bases with no outs but Coss came in to pitch and got back-to-back strikeouts and a ground out to keep the score 6-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, Mississippi State broke open the game with a six run inning. Brown singled with one out, Mangum doubled down the right field line and after Thomas replaced Coss, Alexander single to left center, scoring Mangum and Brown and Gridley single through the right side to set up men on first and third. Rooker followed with a three run homer to left, Elijah MacNamee pinch hit and singled and stole second and two batters later, Dustin Skelton singled to right, scoring MacNamee and it was 12-4 Bulldogs.

The Red Foxes came up in the top of the ninth looking for the rally but were unable to score and Mississippi State emerged victorious 12-4.

Up next, Marist will square off against Indiana State (11 AM) and the Bulldogs (2 PM) on Sunday before returning home.