Mississippi State baseball begins SEC play today with one of the toughest scheduled tests of the regular season.
The No. 3 Bulldogs are 15-2 through the first month of the 2026 season, the program’s best start to a season since 2019, and hope to end their season in the same place that squad did – Omaha.
It starts with a trip to face No. 5 Arkansas, one of the other preseason conference favorites, as head coach Brian O’Connor puts a loaded Bulldog roster to the test in his SEC debut.
Of bats and bullpens
The overwhelming factor in preseason hype about the Diamond Dawgs was the depth on offense. MSU came into season two or three players deep at every position.
Even brief stints on the sideline due to injury only served to showcase the wealth of options throughout the batting order, and offensive production has come from more than just the usual suspects of Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan.
The Bulldogs have scored at least six runs in every game this season, scoring 10 or more runs in seven games, and have a team-wide batting average of .354.
Individually, six Bulldogs have a batting average of at least .400 and 12 have hit at least one home run.
Fresh off of a 26-0 thrashing of Lipscomb last weekend and an 11-7 comeback win over Tulane, the offense is in gear going into SEC play.
The pitching hasn’t been bad either. Ryan McPherson and Tomas Valincius have solidified themselves as the respective Friday and Saturday starters, and Duke Stone has emerged as the favorite to start on Sundays going into conference play. The bullpen roles have been up for contention, and some dicey Sunday and midweek tests gave O’Connor a good look at who can handle pressure situations.
“We’re trying to find those guys in the bullpen we can rely on, who can be consistent,” O’Connor said in Biloxi on Tuesday. “A couple of guys showed up tonight who showed a lot of promise. They’ll continue to get opportunities because of it.”
Chris Billingsley Jr., Maddox Miller and Ben Davis showed the right stuff late in the win over Tulane, and Maddox Webb has been another reliable arm late in contests. A slow start out of the gates by Charlie Foster and a season-ending injury to William Kirk complicated the relief options, but just like on offense, the depth has come in handy for O’Connor.
The opponent
The Razorbacks (12-5) enter the series on the back of a two-game losing streak, having dropped the Sunday and Monday contests against Stetson in a four-game homestand.
It was a good weekend for starting pitchers Gabe Gaeckle and Hunter Dietz, who both went six innings with no earned runs in their respective outings. Dietz recorded a career-best 12 strikeouts in his Saturday start, a 13-1 run-rule victory.
But the rest of the series didn’t go so well.
A 4-1 loss on Sunday saw the Razorbacks struggle offensively, leaving eight runners on base and picking up just five hits. The 6-4 loss on Monday had more of the same, leaving 10 runners on base and falling short of a comeback after getting shelled early. The Razorbacks struggled with pitching, as starter James DeCremer allowed four runs in the opening inning.
The Razorbacks have also slipped up in earlier losses to No. 10 TCU, Arkansas State and UT Arlington, but O’Connor isn’t assuming anything. The atmosphere at Baum-Walker Stadium is one of the closest to Dudy Noble Field in the SEC and a massive crowd will be behind a talented Arkansas squad all the way.
The Bulldogs have had a hectic two weeks of travel between a trip to Arlington, Texas, Hattiesburg and Biloxi. The team also picked up an injury to first baseman Reed Stallman and lost Aidan Teel for a stretch of games due to illness. It’s all part of the business, and with a long season ahead, there are no complaints from O’Connor about the long hours on planes and buses.
“That is what it is,” he said about the travel. “And then we turn to Arkansas. This is why players come and play or coach in the SEC. It’s the best of the best, and you’ve got to be ready every night. That’ll start on Friday night against Arkansas, a really great club, and we’re looking forward to getting the SEC season underway.”
The Bulldogs and Razorbacks will begin their series at 6 p.m. today in Fayetteville. Game 1 will stream on SEC Network+ while Games 2 and 3 will air on SEC Network.
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