STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State softball team has made the final three weekends of the season meaningful.
The No. 19 Bulldogs finished the non-conference home portion of their schedule with a 3-1 win over Memphis Tuesday night at Nusz Park.
Ranked No. 21 in this week’s Ratings Percentage Index, MSU improved to 33-12 overall, 23-5 at home and 27-3 in non-conference play.
“We talk all the time about the importance of the non-conference midweek games,” MSU head coach Vann Stuedeman said. “In some ways, they are more important than the conference games. As strong as the (Southeastern Conference) is, you just have to battle on the weekends. You can’t lose the midweeks. That sets up the importance of the conference games.”
The MSU non-conference losses have been by a combined total of six runs to Drake, Arizona State and Cal State Fullerton. The Bulldogs have been able to couple that dominance with two SEC series road wins at Missouri and Ole Miss.
One of the favorites in the American Athletic Conference and a fellow 30-win team, Memphis (30-15) was a key non-conference win to achieve.
The Bulldogs were held to five hits. Fortunately for the home team, one of those was a two-out, two-run double by Carmen Carter in the second inning.
“It really is whatever it takes to help this team win,” Carter said. “We don’t treat any game different than any other. We are playing well right now and everybody’s confidence is high. We know we will be in every game. It’s just a matter of focusing on the process and trying to get the desired results.”
MSU was back on the diamond after a Monday night 7-6 loss at Ole Miss. The Bulldogs were dominant in a doubleheader-sweep of the Rebels on Sunday but could not protect a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning of Monday night’s series finale in Oxford.
It was still MSU’s first series win versus Ole Miss since 2013 and a big reason why the Bulldogs moved back up four spots in the NFCA rankings Tuesday morning.
“When you have a tough loss, you really want to play again as soon as possible,” Stuedeman said. “We didn’t play well (Monday night). We didn’t do the things that allowed us to get the momentum in the series. Not playing well is the biggest motivation we had coming into (the Memphis game). We wanted to get back on the right track.”
The back-to-back shutouts Sunday gave the MSU staff 16 for the season. Tuesday night, the pitching trio of Emily Williams, Candace Denis and Holly Ward continued the dominance.
The Bulldogs allowed eight hits but only one run and benefited greatly from a Memphis base-running gamble in the fifth inning which stalled a one-run inning.
Freshman Mia Davidson leads the Bulldogs with a .426 average and 15 home runs. The team’s catcher, she was hitless for only the seventh time this season but had the big putout at the plate to squash that Memphis threat.
“Total stud,” Stuedeman said. “If she was a dude, she would be playing major-league baseball right now. There is nothing on a softball field she can’t do.”
The collision at the plate was rough but the victory was crucial.
“We just want to win,” Davidson said. “That is the mind-set of this team. That’s the mentality. We are tough. When things are tight late, you have to be a tough team.”
That toughness will be needed with the final three conference series being against No. 5 Florida (Super Bulldog Weekend), No. 7 Tennessee and No. 12 South Carolina. The final non-conference game is next Wednesday at Troy.
“Super Bulldog Weekend has been very good to us in the past,” Stuedeman said. “This is our chance to make it special again.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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