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.”