STARKVILLE — Mississippi State has now played in 35 NCAA baseball regionals and as of Sunday night have won 12 of them.
As regionals go, the one that ended Sunday was very, very good for the Bulldogs, but it wasn’t a “Super” regional.
That comes this weekend.
Mississippi State concluded its methodical three-game sweep through regional play Sunday, defeating Louisiana Tech 4-0 to claim the title and earn the right to host one of the eight “Super Regionals” this weekend at Dudy Noble Field.
The Bulldogs will now take on either Louisiana-Lafayette or Arizona. Lafayette, also a regional host, needs just one more win to secure its trip to Starkville, while Arizona would have to beat the Ragin’ Cajuns twice today to earn that matchup. The format is best-of-three, with games being played Friday through Sunday.
A Lafayette win would mean a rematch and a shot at redemption for MSU, which lost twice to the Ragin’ Cajuns in regional play two years ago.
“I’m superstitious,” Bulldog coach John Cohen said when asked about the prospects of a rematch with ULL. “Right now, I couldn’t name three players on their team. I won’t do any research on them until I know they’re coming. They are both great clubs that have been battle-tested and both of them are capable of beating us.”
About the only thing that slowed down the Bulldogs this weekend was the weather. Rain and lightning delayed the start of Sunday’s game by two-hours and 10 minutes, with first pitch coming at 8:44 p.m. The game ended at 11:46 p.m. Even so, a crowd of 9,092 braved the elements to watch MSU take care of business behind the pitching of starter Zac Houston (now 6-0 for the season) and Ryan Rigby and some timely hitting, led by regional Most Outstanding Player Brent Rooker, the Bulldogs designated hitter.
Houston, a junior right-hander who emerged late in the season to work his way into the MSU rotation, was particularly effective, giving up just one hit while striking out 10 of the 23 batters he faced.
Houston had worked primarily out of the bullpen until last week, when he dominated Alabama in MSU’s lone win in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. That performance set the stage for Sunday’s start.
“I knew our team would be in the regional, but I didn’t know I would be there (pitching),” Houston said. “So I told myself that if I did get the opportunity, I was going to seize it.”
He did.
“Zac went out there with a purpose,” Cohen said. “I thought he was just dominant.”
Rigby, meanwhile, entered in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and no outs and Houston walked two and gave up a single. Rigby struck out the first two batters, then ended the Tech threat by getting the final out on a fly ball to shallow center field.
In two appearances this week, Rigby pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run on three hits.
Rigby, along with Daniel Brown and Blake Smith, provided dominating work out of the MSU bullpen. The trio yielded just one run on three hits in 11.2 innings as the Bulldogs beat Southeast Missouri 9-5 in Friday’s opener, then turned back Cal State Fullerton, 4-1, on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s title game.
After Rigby secured the final out Sunday evening, the Bulldogs players didn’t do much celebrating.
“As a team, we were real excited to play well, but we are taking a business-like approach to this,” said Rooker, who drove in two of MSU’s four runs Sunday and finished the regional with four hits (including two homers) and six runs-batted-in. “Our goal wasn’t to win the regional. Our goal is to win the national championship. When that happens, that’s when we’ll celebrate.”
MSU, now 44-16-1, is now two wins away from its 10th appearance in the College World Series.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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