Mia Davidson knows the Mississippi State softball team missed plenty of opportunities in dropping its final regular-season series to LSU at Nusz Park.
But when Sunday’s comeback win over the Tigers set up a rematch Wednesday in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Davidson and her teammates were ready.
“Heck yeah,” they figured. “Let’s just do it.”
It took nine innings and plenty of twists and turns, but the Bulldogs (33-23, 10-14 SEC) did it in style in a 7-4 win to advance to the SEC tournament quarterfinals in Gainesville, Florida.
After blowing a 4-2 lead to the sixth-seeded Tigers (34-21, 13-11 SEC) in the bottom of the seventh, 11th-seeded MSU rallied for a three-run ninth inning to knock LSU out of the event.
Davidson hit a tiebreaking single down the left-field line, and Shea Moreno followed with an RBI single before Chloe Malau’ulu hit a sacrifice fly.
“I think it really just speaks to the resiliency of them and their ability to continue to compete and attack and want to do it for the person to their left and their right,” coach Samantha Ricketts said.
The Bulldogs erased a 5-0 deficit to nip LSU 6-5 in the regular-season finale in Starkville.
The win helped Mississippi State avoid a sweep, but it had other benefits.
“I think it just really relaxed the offense,” Ricketts said. Now we’re just starting to be more on the attack and more aggressive, and it’s the offense that we’re used to seeing.”
MSU pounded 12 hits against Tigers pitching, including four consecutive hits in the three-run ninth. Riley Hull and Brylie St. Clair singled up the middle, setting the stage for Davidson’s hard liner past third base to put the Bulldogs ahead.
The SEC’s all-time home run leader had done her part. Then, it was up to her teammates.
“Whatever happens after that, they’ve got my back,” Davidson told herself.
The Bulldogs proved her right.
Moreno lined a single off the shortstop, and Malau’ulu’s fly ball to right was plenty deep enough to score Davidson for the inning’s third run.
Aspen Wesley retired LSU in order in the bottom of the seventh, giving Mississippi State an SEC tournament victory for the third time in four seasons. The Bulldogs have been the lower seed each time.
Ricketts said MSU likes to be counted out, and it showed that Wednesday.
“Nobody really expects us to win, so it’s good for us to keep that confidence and to keep rolling,” Moreno said.
Moreno and the Bulldogs had that confidence from the get-go at Florida’s Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The junior college transfer ripped a two-run home run in the first inning, and after LSU responded in kind in the second, Malau’ulu and Paige Cook drove home runs with base hits in the third.
MSU’s lead nearly stood up, but Ciara Briggs drove home a pair of runs with a one-out chopper up the middle in the seventh.
In the dugout after Kenley Hawk got the final two outs of the inning, Ricketts rallied the troops.
“Hey, we knew four wasn’t going to be enough,” she said. “We need to continue to compete.”
Mississippi State stranded a pair of two-out baserunners in the eighth and nearly saw its time in Gainesville come to an early end. A single and two walks against Wesley put LSU, at one point, three balls away from a walk-off victory.
But Wesley struck out Briggs looking to end the threat and added another strikeout in her perfect ninth.
She tag-teamed with Hawk and starter Annie Willis to hold a high-powered LSU offense to just four runs and six hits.
“They’ve been amazing this whole year,” Davidson said of the Bulldogs’ pitchers. “One after the other, they’ve just been unstoppable.”
Of course, so has Mississippi State’s veteran leader. On Wednesday, Davidson and her fellow elder stateswomen on the team helped the Bulldogs make more progress as they build toward another NCAA tournament appearance.
“They want to leave this program better than they found it,” Ricketts said. “They want to set the standard and do things that haven’t been done before.”
MSU has the chance to reach the SEC tournament semifinals against No. 3 seed Tennessee (38-15, 15-8 SEC). The quarterfinal game will be at 11 a.m. Thursday on SEC Network.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
