HOOVER, Ala. — Vytas Valincius hit two home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on Wednesday morning, becoming the first player in SEC Tournament history to do so, and lifting the No. 8 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs to a 12-2 run-rule win over the No. 16 seed Missouri Tigers in the second round. The win ends Missouri’s season and sends Mississippi State into a Thursday quarterfinal matchup with regular-season champion and No. 1 seed Georgia.
Mississippi State improved to 40-16 overall and 16-14 in conference play. Missouri’s season ends at 24-31 (6-24 SEC). For the Bulldogs — ranked No. 16 in the most recent D1Baseball Top 25 — Wednesday’s win was their first SEC Tournament victory under first-year head coach Brian O’Connor, the 2015 national champion at Virginia who took over the program this past offseason. They face No. 1 seed Georgia at 3 p.m. ET Thursday on the SEC Network in the quarterfinals.
For Kerrick Jackson and the Missouri Tigers, the run-rule loss closes a season that produced the program’s first SEC Tournament win in nine years on Tuesday morning, and the team’s first back-to-back tournament games since 2017. The Tigers’ NCAA Tournament drought now extends to 14 years.
THE GREAT KAMBINO STAYS HOT ?
Durnin goes 427 ft. to CF for his 9th of the year and second in as many days, Tigers lead!#MizzouNOW pic.twitter.com/RGBaxEFYQM
— Mizzou Baseball (@MizzouBaseball) May 20, 2026
History in the sixth inning
Mississippi State led 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth. The Bulldogs sent twelve batters to the plate over the next 18 minutes, and the inning ended a different way: 12-2, a run-rule margin, with two home runs from the same player.
Vytas Valincius — the Lithuanian-American outfielder who transferred to Mississippi State from Illinois this past summer alongside his brother Tomas — led off the inning with a solo home run to left field to make it 5-2. After a single by Bryce Chance, an error on Ryder Woodson’s grounder, a Chone James single to load the bases, a Gehrig Frei HBP to bring in one run, an Ace Reese bases-loaded walk for another, a Noah Sullivan RBI single, and a Jacob Parker RBI groundout, Valincius came back to the plate with two runners on. He launched a three-run home run to left-center field — his second of the inning and second home run of the same frame.
“I don’t think I ever have,” Valincius said after the game when asked when he last hit two home runs in one inning. “I’ve seen someone else do it, but I don’t think I’ve ever done it. So my last at-bat, I was just trying to see the ball early and then I put a good swing on it. Yeah, it worked out.”
Mississippi State Athletics confirmed Valincius became the first player in conference history to homer twice in the same inning at the SEC Tournament. He was also the first Bulldog to homer twice in the same inning since Hunter Hines did it on May 15, 2025, at Missouri — a piece of trivia made richer by the fact that the Bulldog opponent that day was the same Tigers.
For Valincius, the homers came after he had struggled at the plate earlier in the game.
“From a ‘me’ standpoint, the first two at-bats, I was just not on time,” Valincius said. “I was just getting on time, being early, and then adjustments on whatever they throw. So it was just an adjustment I made.”
O’Connor framed the inning as a microcosm of his program’s approach.
“That sixth inning, it’s easy to say it because of the two home runs and what we did and scored that many runs,” O’Connor said. “But it was more about what the approach was. We started getting back to what we do and that’s grind out at-bats and take what the game gives you. And we were rewarded with a beginning.”
Tomas Valincius starts the rotation
Mississippi State sophomore right-hander Tomas Valincius — Vytas’s brother, a future first-round MLB draft prospect, an All-SEC First Team starting pitcher just announced Monday, and the player his head coach calls “Tico” — got the ball on three days’ rest after starting last weekend against Texas A&M, and was dominant. Across 6.0 innings, Tomas Valincius allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits, walking none and striking out eight on 78 pitches. He improved to 10-2.
The performance backed up O’Connor’s pretournament decision to start him.
“Coach Parker and I debrief after every weekend, talk about the pitchers and where they’re at and everything,” O’Connor said. “There was really no decision on what we were going to do, not knowing your opponent. Tico was the right guy to get this tournament off to a good start. He was going to be on an 80-pitch limit, because obviously we need him next weekend. But I’ve just always believed in tournament time that win the game in front of you. Next weekend, there’s a little bit that goes into scouting and things like that on who you’re going to pitch on what day. But today, it was simple, that we need to get in championship mode and compete.”
Asked about his short-rest mindset, Tomas Valincius answered with characteristic bluntness: “I felt great. I did a great job recovering this week and back to it, working with Coach Parker, fixing some stuff up from last outing. I just put a lot of pressure on the hitters, attacked them with everything I had. And that was kind of the story of it.”
The Valincius brothers, in their first SEC Tournament press conference together, also acknowledged what their head coach knew when recruiting them: they’re tough.
“There’s the ability part,” O’Connor said. “But I know how those two young men grew up. They’re tough. They are absolute warriors, the two of them. So there’s the ability piece, but there’s the competitive part that you have to have to win in this league. So that family and how those two young men grew up is a separator, and you don’t see it that much anymore. A lot of these kids grow up now, mom and dad hand them everything, rub their back when things don’t go well. These two young men grew up, and the way they grew up, they’re tough kids. And I’ll take those kind of guys any day.”
In a moment that landed differently in the press conference room: Tomas Valincius made a diving attempt for a pop-up in front of the Missouri dugout earlier in the game — a play he scrambled for despite being late, ending up with a strawberry on his elbow.
“I just wanted to get the out,” Tomas Valincius said. “It’s baseball. I pitched to get outs. If I have to make that, I’ll try my best to do that.”
Woodson and the three-run swing
Mississippi State’s other key offensive moment came earlier in the day. After Missouri’s Kam Durnin opened the game with a solo home run to center field — his ninth of the year, scoring his ninth run of the season — Mississippi State responded in the bottom of the second. Jacob Parker singled, stole second base after a Mississippi State challenge overturned the call, and Bryce Chance reached on an error. Ryder Woodson then launched a three-run home run to left field, his sixth of the year, to put the Bulldogs ahead 3-1.
Woodson finished with three RBI on the day and has been steady in stretches since transferring from NC State this past summer.
“I know he’s got 10 errors or something like that. It’s his first time ever in college baseball playing every day as a shortstop,” O’Connor said. “But his defense and his range is getting better and better. Ryder went through a lull in the middle third part of the season. That’s because he’s a long, wiry guy that hasn’t lined up every day. His swing got a little bit long, some length to it. And I’ll tell you, last weekend — I’ve seen this about the last 10 days, I’ve seen him tighten some things up with his hands and his swing.”
O’Connor also noted Woodson’s postseason instinct from his NC State days: “I think the young man has a flare for the moment. Why do I say that? Last year, in the NCAA Regional that he played for NC State, he hit a couple home runs at the most important times of the year for them.”
Gehrig Frei drove in two runs on the day. Bryce Chance — named to the All-SEC Second Team as an outfielder on Monday — scored three times.
Durnin’s last day in black and gold
For Missouri, Kam Durnin — the junior shortstop coming off four hits in Tuesday’s win over Ole Miss — homered to center field in the first inning to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. It was his ninth of the year and second of the tournament.
“This is going to go down as one of my favorite parks I’ve ever played at,” Durnin said after the game. “It’s beautiful. It’s a natural surface. You can’t ask for a better spot to play the conference tournament.”
Durnin, asked what he’ll take away from the season: “It’s been such a blessing to be on this team, to play with these guys, these coaches. Not only that, for me being a Missouri guy, to represent the state of Missouri, to have people from my hometown, my high school, come and support me during home games — I thank the Lord every day for just the opportunity to get to chase my dreams in the state of Missouri, where I grew up and just to represent Lake of the Ozarks.”
On the program’s trajectory: “We didn’t have the year we wanted. But in terms of growing a program, we were better than last year. And just continuing to go take steps forward. Individually and as a team, some people take the elevator, some people take the stairs, but in the end, it all ends up in the same spot.”
Jackson on the build
For Kerrick Jackson, in his third season at Missouri and reflective in the postgame, Wednesday’s loss bookended a year-over-year improvement story even as the season closed in a run-rule.
“They brought me in here to do a job, and that job was to build,” Jackson said. “I knew what the job was when I took it. Not expecting things to happen overnight. Unfortunately, I know that that is the mindset in our league, is that it’s supposed to happen right away. But we’re in a different situation. And as I said, I recognize coming and getting the job, I think people around the program recognize the direction that we’re moving in and how we have to go about doing that.”
On where Missouri stands developmentally: “We’re still in that space of anticipating a loss as opposed to taking the win. And that’s something big that when you are in this environment, specifically in the SEC, you can’t anticipate the loss. You’ve got to attack the win. You’ve got to know that the win is there. You’ve got to challenge the other team to stop you from doing things to keep you from winning. And we’re not there just yet. We’re still learning how to be able to put ourselves in a position to win in the margins of the game.”
Jackson also offered a notable observation on the SEC’s new ABS challenge system at the close of his program’s tournament: “I will wonder if we want to tighten it up. We’re a little bit wider and bigger than the Major League zone. I wonder if we’ll tighten that up a little bit. When you think about the parameters that we were given with the ABS system that we’re using, now when you add the ball in there, that makes it wide at that point.”
He also raised a question about ABS in non-conference play: “Will we look to use ABS only in SEC play, but knowing that we go some other places and they’re not going to have it? So then what does that mean for our kids if you’re used to having it during conference play but not in non-conference play you don’t have it and how do we do that?”
What’s next
Mississippi State advances to the quarterfinals to face No. 1 seed Georgia on Thursday, May 21 at 3 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The two teams played a three-game series in Starkville earlier this season; Georgia won all three. Georgia, ranked No. 4 in the D1Baseball Top 25 at 43-12 (23-7 SEC), is led by 2026 SEC Player of the Year Daniel Jackson, who is batting .394 with 27 home runs, 77 RBI, and 25 stolen bases — making him just the sixth player in Division I history and the first catcher ever to record a 25-25 season.
“They’re good. Right? They clearly won the toughest league in the country, and they’re obviously incredibly offensive and have a good pitching staff as well,” O’Connor said of the Bulldogs from Athens. “The three ball games in Starkville were all great games. Unfortunately, State came out on the wrong end of all of them. But they were great baseball games and two really great teams, and I expect the same thing tomorrow.”
For Missouri, the season is over. Selection Monday airs at 12 p.m. ET on May 25 on ESPN2. Missouri did not project on D1Baseball’s most recent NCAA Tournament bracketology.
By the Numbers
Score: Mississippi State 12, Missouri 2 (7 innings, run-rule)
Hits: Mississippi State 8, Missouri 5
Errors: Mississippi State 1, Missouri 2
Left on base: Mississippi State 3, Missouri 2
Mississippi State pitching: Tomas Valincius (W, 10-2) 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 78 pitches. Ben Davis 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 14 pitches.
Missouri pitching: Brady Kehlenbrink (L, 3-10) 4.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 89 pitches. Sam Rosand 1.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 19 pitches. Isaiah Salas 0.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 22 pitches.
Mississippi State hitting leaders: Vytas Valincius 2-for-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R (first player to homer twice in same inning at SEC Tournament). Ryder Woodson 1-for-2, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB. Gehrig Frei 1-for-3, 2 RBI, 1 HBP. Bryce Chance 1-for-2, 1 SB, 3 R, 1 BB. Jacob Parker 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 SB. Noah Sullivan 1-for-4, 1 RBI.
Missouri hitting leaders: Kam Durnin 2-for-3, HR, 1 RBI, 1 R. Kaden Peer 1-for-3, 1 R. Jamal George 1-for-3. Pierre Seals 1-for-2.
For More on the 2026 SEC Tournament
- Game 4 Recap: LSU 6, Oklahoma 2
- Game 3 Recap: Tennessee 11, South Carolina 6
- Game 2 Recap: Vanderbilt 8, Kentucky 5
- Game 1 Recap: Missouri 10, Ole Miss 8
- How to Watch the 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament
2026 SEC Baseball Tournament Schedule
All times Eastern. Second game of each session begins approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first.
Tuesday, May 19 — First Round (SEC Network)
Game 1: No. 9 Ole Miss vs. No. 16 Missouri — 10:30 a.m. (Missouri 10, Ole Miss 8 — FINAL)
Game 2: No. 12 Vanderbilt vs. No. 13 Kentucky — 2 p.m. (Vanderbilt 8, Kentucky 5 — FINAL)
Game 3: No. 10 Tennessee vs. No. 15 South Carolina — 5:30 p.m. (Tennessee 11, South Carolina 6 — FINAL)
Game 4: No. 11 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 LSU — 9 p.m. (LSU 6, Oklahoma 2 — FINAL)
Wednesday, May 20 — Second Round (SEC Network)
Game 5: Missouri vs. No. 8 Mississippi State — 10:30 a.m. (Mississippi State 12, Missouri 2 — FINAL, 7 inn.)
Game 6: Vanderbilt vs. No. 5 Florida — 2 p.m.
Game 7: Tennessee vs. No. 7 Arkansas — 5:30 p.m.
Game 8: LSU vs. No. 6 Auburn — 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 21 — Quarterfinals (SEC Network)
Game 9: Mississippi State vs. No. 1 Georgia — 3 p.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. No. 4 Alabama — 8 p.m.
Friday, May 22 — Quarterfinals (SEC Network)
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. No. 2 Texas — 4 p.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. No. 3 Texas A&M — 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 23 — Semifinals (SEC Network)
Game 13: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10 — 1 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12 — 5 p.m.
Sunday, May 24 — Championship (ABC)
Game 15: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14 — 2 p.m.
