The Mississippi State Bulldogs messed with Texas, and got slammed for their efforts.

Texas A&M hit two grand slams, one by Nick Banks and the other by Ronnie Gideon, to pull away from Mississippi State and win 13-5 in Sunday’s series finale in College Station.

The Bulldogs (22-16, 6-9 Southeastern Conference) won the middle game of the three-game set on Saturday, but wound up losing their fourth conference series in five tries.

Since starting the season with a 13-game winning streak, Mississippi State has struggled to a 9-16 record.

“In the first two games, we pitched it well and that kept us in the game,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “In this game, we didn’t pitch it well at all. Realistically, we had two out of eight innings where you feel like pitchers went out and did a really great job. Personally, I feel we have the best defensive infield in the league but we are struggling to put them in a position to make plays.”

Wes Rea went 3-for-4 with a solo home run for the Bulldogs, while John Holland doubled and drove in two runs. The Bulldogs also outhit the Aggies 14-12.

That was enough to keep it close for a while, until the Aggies (33-3. 11-3) got homer happy.

Banks’ grand slam in the fourth inning gave them an 8-3 lead. Rea’s home run in the fifth inning an a sacrifice fly by Cody Brown got the Bulldogs back within striking distance, but Gideon launched a grand slam over the video board in left field to make it 13-5.

In the middle innings, Mississippi State left the bases loaded twice. It stranded 12 runners in the game.

“We were just trying to make a statement after losing Saturday’s game,” Banks said. “We thought the other team played perfect to beat us and they got timely hits and we didn’t. We just wanted to make sure that didn’t happen today and we did it in a big way.”

Texas A&M’s bullpen kept Mississippi State in check in the second half of the game. After starter Matt Kent gave up nine hits in 3 1/3 innings, three Aggie relievers held MSU to two runs the rest of the way.

Ryan Hendrix (3-0) got the win. He allowed one hit, no runs or walks, and struck out six over the last 4 1/3 innings.

Mississippi State used six pitchers, with starter Vance Tatum (3-2) taking the loss. He lasted just one inning and allowed four runs on three hits and a walk.

MSU’s beleagured bullpen struck out nine batters, but gave up nine runs on nine hits, and walked five batters.

“I’m very proud of our guys today, competing, playing hard and pulling for each other,” Texas A&M coach Rob Childress said. “Wins in the SEC are hard to come by and obviously this was a big one for us today.”