LAFAYETTE, La. — Mississippi State fought valiantly before seeing its baseball season end Monday night in the championship game of the Lafayette Regional.

MSU spotted Louisiana-Lafayette the game’s first four runs before watching a rally fall short, 5-3 before a standing-room only crowd at Tigue Moore Field. ULL, the nation’s top-ranked team and No. 6 national seed, won four straight games to win a regional championship for the first time since 2000. ULL also beat MSU 14-8 Sunday night.

Louisiana-Lafayette (57-8) will host this weekend in its third-ever super regional appearance. For No. 17 MSU, the Bulldogs played in a regional championship game for the third time in four seasons.MSU finishes the season 39-24.

ULL built the early 4-0 lead with three runs in the third inning and another score in the fourth inning. Again, walks and wild pitches plagued the Bulldogs.

“We were down 4-0 early and the kids showed a lot of composure in fighting back,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “We had a tough time keeping the game in front of us in the third inning. Lafayette is a very good club. You have to beat them the way we did in the second half of that game.

“We walked seven during the course of the game. That was the whole ballgame. We have to play clean games to win championships. That is how we are built. Baseball is a game of inches and it certainly was there in the third inning.”

MSU starter Lucas Laster (0-1) was lifted during the third inning. After working around two hits in the second inning, Laster issued a one-out walk and allowed a two-out RBI-single in the third inning. Two more walks loaded the bases before the Bulldogs went to Jacob Lindgren.