EUGENE, Ore. – Powered by a weekend spree of impeccable pitching, Mississippi State’s softball team defeated St. Mary’s (Ca.) 5-0 Sunday in the championship bracket of the Eugene Regional in Oregon and advanced to the Super Regionals for the second time in program history.
Pitching has been the strong suit of the No. 20 Bulldogs all season, and in the Eugene Regional they didn’t just lean on it – they were galvanized by it. Peja Goold and Alyssa Faircloth combined to limit St. Mary’s big-hitting squad to just four hits in Friday’s 3-2 win in eight innings, and on Saturday Faircloth awed from the circle as she hurled a no-hitter to help shutout host No. 12 Oregon 4-0. Along the way she rang up 10 strikeouts and only issued one walk to help her team advance to Sunday’s final match, where Faircloth again shined on the biggest stage of the year.
With a trip to the Super Regionals on the line, Faircloth fanned 14 more batters and only gave up two hits to the Gaels in back-to-back shutouts as her offense provided the run support with two homers for the victory. Nadia Barbary scored two runs with a long ball in the first inning, and Tatum Silva drilled a three-run blast in the sixth inning to add to the cushion. Faircloth earned the win in the circle in all three games and ended the final two days of softball with 15 2/3 scoreless innings, two complete-game shutouts and a no-hitter – the team’s first ever in regional play. Along with a new program record for strikeouts in a regional (26), Faircloth also set new marks for most strikeouts in a game (14), most strikeouts looking in any game (6) and most wins in a regional (3).
“I just went out there and did it three outs at a time again,” Faircloth said after Sunday’s win. “I don’t want to get too big or look too far ahead. That was their message before we even left the hotel, which was like ‘Let’s take it one pitch at a time, one out at a time,’ that kind of thing, rather than looking ahead. So, I’m just staying present in the moment and trusting the girls behind me.”
Faircloth’s flurry moved the Bulldogs to 503 strikeouts on the season, which makes Bulldogs the eighth SEC team since 2016 to reach the half-thousand mark, and the squad sits just behind Belmont (527) with the second-most in all of the NCAA.
The Bulldogs are now Oklahoma bound for the Norman Super Regional and will play the No. 2 Sooners in a best-of-three series for a trip to the Women’s College World Series. The series begins noon Friday and gives the team a chance to carry on their surge after struggling through SEC play.
“I’m just really proud of the way that they’ve continued to fight and grind all season,” head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “We were the only SEC team that played all 24 games against Quad 1 RPI teams, and it was a grind. It was tough at times for us. We definitely took our lumps, and I think overall the message was just continuing to fight, leaning on each other and just knowing that we were a team that’s built for May. The opportunity to come out here and just put it all together at the right time is really special. Obviously, Alyssa leading the way for us to continue to attack and just keeping us in games, giving us a chance to score some runs for her.
“Whether it’s Nadia, Tatum or really anybody in our lineup, just finding ways to come up with some big runs for us” she added. “I think overall, just the joy they had playing for each other, something bigger than themselves, was just very evident with this group. That is something that I know we’re all really proud of.”
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