Already more than 2,000 miles away from home, Mississippi State’s softball team begins its trek to the Women’s College World Series today against St. Mary’s (Ca.) in Oregon as a part of the Eugene Regional.
The occasion marks the 20th NCAA Tournament appearance for the Bulldogs, who are looking to advance to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2022 and curate some offensive momentum along the way. The Bulldogs (38-18) and Gaels (40-14) get the postseason started at 6:30 p.m and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+. The two teams last squared off in 1997 – a 2-1 St. Mary’s win.
The regional brings one last opportunity for the Bulldogs to make some noise after a hot start to the season slipped into a difficult trudge through SEC play and short fizzle in the conference tournament. The squad erupted for 11 wins to start the year before taking its first loss and then got right back to winning. Behind one of the best pitching staffs in the country and solid offense, the team had piled up a 26-2 record and a national ranking as high as No. 11 before heading into SEC play where troubles began. The Bulldogs’ offense struggled to produce at a high level as its pitching kept them in close games against top competition and the team mustered only one win in each of its first two series – both against top-15 squads. State rebounded with a series win over South Carolina but then succumbed to a close loss against Florida in another top-15 clash.
Then-ranked No. 8 Arkansas took two of three from the Bulldogs on their next outing and Texas A&M swept State the following week in another blow. With just two series left in the regular season, State rebounded with a series win against then-No. 20 LSU before losing the final two games of its series at rival Ole Miss to finish 10th in the SEC standings. A 4-3 comeback win over Kentucky in the first round of the SEC Tournament was all the Bulldogs could generate before falling out in a 3-0 loss to Arkansas in the second round.
State enters the Eugene Regional with the second-lowest batting average in the SEC (.274), which ranks 213th in the country, but brings the country’s eighth-best team ERA (2.24) in the circle. Alyssa Faircloth and Peja Goold have both been dynamite pitchers all season for MSU and rank in the top 30 nationally in strikeouts; Faircloth is 6th (235) and Goold is 28th (169). Nadia Barbary, Morgan Stiles and Kiarra Sell have been State’s best producers at the plate with more than 50 hits each this season, but the squad has been held to just 11 hits through its last three games.
While State is looking to create some momentum, the Gaels are looking to keep their engine running even better. St. Mary’s, the reigning champion of the West Coast Conference for the last three years, is in the midst of the best season in its history. Its 40 wins are a program record, 10 more than last year’s previous mark, and the team set a new win-streak mark this season with a stretch of 12 consecutive victories. Hannah Ferguson set four program bests at the plate in career triples (15), career stolen bases (62), single season triples (10), and runs scored in a season (50). Sam Buckley reset the program home run record with 29 long balls, Braxton Brown set the single-season RBI record at 54 and Odhi Vasquez became the second-ever Gael to record 400 strikeouts.
Who else is in the Eugene Regional?
After State and St. Mary’s play, host Oregon and Idaho State follow up at 9 p.m. with another contest. Oregon (40-12) is hosting a regional for the second straight season after tying for second in the Big Ten Conference at 20-4. The Ducks are tied for 51st in the country with 460 hits, and rank 28th with a batting average of .332. They can do some damage in the circle as well and have fanned 360 batters (11th most in the NCAA).
Idaho State (37-18) is the reigning Big Sky Champion and is making its egional debut. The Bengals come into the tournament on a five-game win streak and feature one of the nation’s best power-hitting units. Sydney Groves is the Big Sky’s top home run hitter with 19 of her team’s 78 deep shots along with a .348 batting average.
The winner of the Eugene Regional will move on to play the winner of the Norman Regional, which features Oklahoma, Kansas, Michigan and Binghamton.
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