STARKVILLE — Few secrets will be held in reserve this weekend when the Mississippi State University softball team will play host to the No. 2 University of Alabama in a Southeastern Conference three-game series.
MSU coach Vann Stuedeman will face her former employer for the first time. Stuedeman was pitching coach for the Crimson Tide the past 11 seasons. MSU volunteer assistant coach Kelsi Dunne, who is pursuing a graduate degree at Alabama, her alma mater, also will wear Maroon and White this weekend.
The teams will meet at 7 p.m. Friday, at 1 p.m. Saturday, and at 1 p.m. Sunday at the MSU Softball Field.
Alabama, which has advanced to seven of the past 12 Women’s College World Series, is in a dog fight for the SEC regular-season championship. MSU is in a dog fight for a spot in the SEC tournament and a NCAA tournament regional berth.
“We have a great challenge,” Stuedeman said. “But this is why you put on the uniform and play in this league. Every weekend you are going to play an outstanding opponent. The important thing is we live in the moment and we don’t get ahead of ourselves. Hopefully, we will have some great crowds and it will be good college softball.”
The Bulldogs snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 4-3, eight-inning win at Mississippi Valley State. As the calendar turns to April, each non-conference victory has added significance.
“It was a lot of poise, a lot of patience, a lot of discipline and a lot of maturity,” Stuedeman said. “We will grow from this experience in that we know we can win a game at the end. Sometimes you have to stay patient and know it is going to happen.”
MSU received good news Tuesday when the NCAA released its first official Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings for the season. While many NCAA-sanctioned sports use an RPI formula to determine postseason participants, softball relies heavily on the formula. The Bulldogs are 39th in the ranking. The NCAA will release official RPI numbers each Tuesday for the remainder of the regular season.
MSU is seventh in RPI among the SEC schools. That number likely will hold steady or slightly improve regardless of the outcome of this weekend’s series with Alabama, which is No. 1 in RPI.
“Our goal is to make it back to postseason,” MSU senior outfielder Brittany Bell said. “That has been the goal from the beginning of the season. In any year, you are going to have ups and downs. The main thing is we stay confident and we stay together. We know we have the capabilities to win against some of the better teams in the nation.
“However, everybody has to do their part and we have to do it together as one.”
Entering the Alabama series, MSU is 19-15 and 3-10 in the SEC. The Bulldogs have lost six straight conference games, which includes back-to-back series sweeps to No. 26 LSU and the No. 10 University of Tennessee.
MSU last made a regional tournament appearance in 2009. That squad earned an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament with a 28-26 record (13-14 SEC). MSU has made regional appearances with 12 conference wins (once), 13 conference wins (four times), and 14 conference wins (twice).
A minimum of seven conference teams have made the 64-team NCAA tournament in each of the past five seasons. The lowest conference win total for a regional participant is 11.
While MSU has to like its position, it still has work to do. If the NCAA takes seven SEC teams again, the Bulldogs should be in good shape. Lower-rated SEC teams in the RPI include Kentucky (58th), Arkansas (59th), Ole Miss (72nd), and South Carolina (75th).
Kentucky, a super regional team last season, is 15-16 and 2-4. The Wildcats have 22 of their final 25 games inside the league. The Wildcats still face three of the league’s four top-10 teams. After this weekend, MSU already will have played all four of those squads.
Arkansas is 18-13 and 2-9. The Razorbacks have two top-25 victories, but they lost their fifth in a row Wednesday, 6-0 to Tulsa. Arkansas has faced two of the SEC’s four top-10 teams, and will face the other two on back-to-back weekends to end the season.
Ole Miss is 14-16 and 2-6. The Rebels have lost eight of their last 10 and are 0-8 against top-25 teams. Ole Miss had played two of the four in the top 10. It must go on the road to No. 4 Florida and No. 10 Tennessee in April.
South Carolina is 20-16 and 2-9. The Gamecocks snapped a seven-game slide Wednesday with a 12-2 win against Winthrop. MSU beat South Carolina twice earlier this year in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina still has to face No. 9 Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee in succession in April.
“There is still a lot of softball left to be played,” Stuedeman said. “We are not going to back down from anybody. To be a successful program, you have to play teams as good as you are and better than you are. I crave the opportunity to coach against that kind of competition. I know our players crave the opportunity to play against that type of competition.”
To qualify for postseason, a team must finish above .500 in the regular season. MSU is scheduled to play 55 games. If you factor in a potential game in the SEC tournament, MSU needs 29 wins to secure the winning season.
In non-conference play, MSU still has to face Southern Mississippi twice, Tennessee Tech twice, Memphis, and Jackson State. If necessary, a makeup game could also be added to get MSU to the NCAA limit of 56 games.
After the Alabama series, MSU will face Arkansas, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Auburn in league play. Those four teams are 9-26 in the SEC. The negative is the RPI of a lower-regarded teams will affect MSU negatively if it loses a series.
In relation to the SEC tournament, the Bulldogs would miss the cut if the eight-team event started today. MSU is ninth in the standings.
The Bulldogs will have to work their magic on the road. After the Alabama series, seven of its final 18 games are at home. MSU is 6-3 in true road games for the season.
MSU has made the April part of its schedule meaningful by defeating Georgia Tech in the NFCA Leadoff Classic and beating Georgia in a SEC game at home. After the Alabama series, the Bulldogs will have played nine games against the RPI top 10 and 18 games against the RPI top 25 — both marks are among the nation’s best.
Only three teams with fewer than MSU’s 19 overall wins are rated above it in the RPI statistics. Only five teams in the RPI top 40 have more road wins than the Bulldogs.
Stuedeman had hoped her squad could turn the corner this season. The Bulldogs were 21-21 a year ago before losing 11 of their final 14 games.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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